iF 


as* 


^  ®Wi»gtra/ 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

c3  nom  "VVi<S/  cS^\'yo>c'<^A 


% 


T3t-.  OtAno&s  'mc-Cos'h, 


BT  701  . B28 

Baker,  L.  C.  1831-1915. 

The  mystery  of  creation  an 
of  man 


'  -  N  ¥ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/rnysteryofcreatio00bake_0 


TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED 


A  NEW  VIEW  OF  FUTURE  PUNISHMENT. 


■/Y 

L.  C.  BAKER. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  &  CO. 
18  84. 


Copyright,  1883,  by  L.  C.  Baker. 


PEEFAOE. 


The  forms  in  which  the  Christian  faith  is  now 
assailed  are, — 

1.  As  to  the  Father.  It  is  sought  to  destroy 
the  idea  of  a  personal  God  by  obliterating  the 
distinction  between  matter  and  spirit,  and  making 
nature  the  sufficient  cause  and  end  of  all  things. 

2.  As  to  the  Son.  His  mission  is  reduced  to 
the  level  of  this  natural  system  and  compressed 
within  its  limits.  All  that  assumes  to  transcend 
these  limits,  not  excepting  that  transcendent  mira¬ 
cle  upon  which  the  whole  structure  of  Christianity 
rests,  the  Resurrection,  is  rejected  or  thrust  out 
of  sight  behind  that  mythical  veil  which  conceals 
the  origin  of  all  religions.  In  this  view  the  per¬ 
fected  natural  man  becomes  of  right  the  Son  of 
God  and  Heir  of  the  world. 

3.  As  to  the  Spirit.  It  is  denied  that  He  pro¬ 
ceed  eth  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  and  speci- 

3 


4 


PREFA  CE. 


ally  from  the  risen  Son  of  man,  as  that  new 
creating  energy  by  which  all  things  are  to  be 
made  new,  both  in  the  region  of  man’s  life  and 
in  that  physical  system  to  which  he  stands  re¬ 
lated.  It  is  affirmed  that  all  things  must  con¬ 
tinue  as  they  were,  and  that  whatever  renovation 
is  effected  in  man,  or  in  the  system  of  things  to 
which  he  belongs,  must  be  wrought  out  by  the 
well-known  agencies  of  nature,  and  must  proceed 
according  to  her  fixed  and  unchanging  laws. 

And  so  the  thoughts  of  men  are  turned  away 
from  Him  “  Who  is  and  Who  was  and  Who  is  to 
come.” 

This  volume  does  not  oppose  these  errors  with 
scientific  treatise  nor  yet  with  elaborate  exegesis. 
It  is  made  up  of  fervid  pulpit  utterances,  which, 
while  not  disdaining  the  teachings  of  science,  seek 
to  carry  some  new  light  into  her  realms  from 
Scripture,  enabling  us  to  look  across  her  boun¬ 
daries  and  to  catch  glimpses  of  the  veiled  face  of 
our  Father  God. 

And  they  project  light,  from  the  same  source, 
upon  the  mystery  of  the  Christ  and  behind  the 
veil  which  now  conceals  Him,  and  show  what 
meaning  attaches  to  manhood  in  the  light  of  this 


PREFACE. 


5 


manifestation  of  God  and  of  the  glory  which  is 
yet  to  be  revealed.  And  they  show  what  harvest 
the  Spirit  is  ripening  on  these  fields  of  creation, 
of  which  His  first  fruits  in  our  hearts  and  bodies 
are  the  earnest  and  the  pledge. 

They  are  now  sent  forth  upon  whatever  mission 
of  instruction,  of  comfort,  or  of  warning  the  God 
of  all  grace  and  truth  may  have  in  store  for 
them. 


1* 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I. — The  Father  of  Lights  ....  9 

II. — The  Word  made  Flesh  ....  26 

III.  — What  is  Man? . 48 

IV.  — Angels,  Authorities,  and  Powers  .  65 

Y. — Things  Visible  and  Invisible  .  .  71 

YI. — The  Prince  of  this  World  ...  85 

VII. — The  Power  of  Darkness  ...  94 

VIII. — The  Natural  and  the  Spiritual  .  106 

IX. — The  Old  Man  and  the  New  .  .  .  117 

X. — The  Sacrifice  of  the  Body  .  .  .  133 

XI. — Physical  Salvation . 147 

XII.- — Wiiat  is  Eternal  Life?  .  .  .  158 

XIII. — The  Everlasting  Fire  ....  166 

XI Y. — Destruction  Qua  Homo  :  A  New 

Thought  about  Future  Punishment  181 
XY. — The  Song  of  Moses  and  of  the  Lamb  .  191 


7 


✓ 


THE  MTSTEET  OF  CREATION 
AND  OF  MAN. 


x. 

THE  FATHER  OF  LIGHTS. 

Di )  not  err ,  my  beloved  brethren.  Every  good  gift  and 
every  perfect  gift  is  from  above ,  and  cometh  down  from  the 
Father  of  Lights ,  ivith  whom  is  no  variableness ,  neither 
shadow  of  turning.  Of  His  own  will  begat  He  us  with  the 
word  of  His  truth ,  that  we  should  be  a  kind  of  first  fruits 
of  His  creatures. — St.  James  i.  16-18. 

The  number  of  those  who  look  upon  it  as  a 
superstition  to  believe  in  God  or  pray  to  Him 
seems  to  be  everywhere  increasing.  Few  indeed 
deny  that  there  is  a  Supreme  Power,  or  primal 
force,  the  origin  of  all  things.  But  is  this 
“  Power”  in  any  proper  sense  a  person  ?  Is  He 
a  God  and  Father?  What  is  His  relation  to 
this  system  of  nature,  all  of  whose  forces  move 
on  fixed  lines?  And  what  is  my  relation  to  it? 

Is  my  little  barque  of  life,  launched  on  to  this 
tide  of  motion  and  of  being,  a  stray  waif  running 

out  to  unknown  seas,  or  shall  it  some  day  float 

9 


10  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


me  into  the  presence  of  God,  where  I  shall  see 
His  face,  and  know  that  He  is  my  Father,  and 
that  He  has  been  guiding  me  by  an  unseen  hand 
across  all  these  seas  to  a  home  in  His  palace  and 
His  heart? 

Scepticism  about  God  in  these  days  has  taken 
this  special  form.  If  it  concede  His  existence  at 
all,  it  seeks  to  remove  Him  from  any  personal 
connection  with  the  orderly  operations  of  nature, 
and  with  the  bounties  which  flow  to  us  through 
them. 

Now,  as  if  in  foresight  of  the  paths  of  error 
by  which  so  many  are  being  led  away  from  the 
knowledge  of  God,  whom  to  know  is  life  eternal, 
Scripture  records  this  warning,  “Do  not  err. 
Every  good  gift  and  every  perfect  gift  is  from 
above,  and  cometh  down  to  11s  from  the  Father  of 
lights.”  The  assertion  is  that  all  nature’s  re¬ 
positories  of  force  were  made  and  stored  by  Him, 
and  that  the  whole  system  is  freighted  with 
ministries  of  mercy  to  man.  And  a  reason  for 
this  is  given  :  “  Of  His  own  will  begat  He  us 
with  the  word  of  His  truth,  that  we  should  be  a 
kind  of  first  fruits  of  His  creatures.” 

The  title  here  given  to  God  is  significant.  He 
is  called  “  the  Father  of  lights,”  or  of  “  the 
lights,”  for  the  article  occurs  with  the  noun. 
This  title  is  unique,  and  occurs  nowhere  else  in 
Scripture.  The  139th  Psalm  gives  the  clue  to  its 


THE  FATHER  OF  LIGHTS. 


11 


meaning.  We  are  there  exhorted  to  give  thanks 
unto  the  Lord,  for  His  mercy  endureth  forever. 
And  among;  the  mighty  works  of  Creation  cited 
in  proof  of  His  goodness  is  this:  “To  Him  that 
made  great  lights,  for  His  mercy  endureth  for¬ 
ever.”  The  apostle  here  is  directing  our  minds  to 
God  as  Creator,  not  merely  in  a  general  way,  but 
as  the  Author  of  the  innumerable  lights  that  stud 
the  heavens.  The  term  “  lights”  includes  with 
the  sun  the  whole  family  of  which  he  is  a  mem¬ 
ber,  the  fixed  stars  which  bespangle  the  midnight 
sky.  These  are  all  suns,  great  lights.  And  they 
are  called  fixed  stars,  because  the  designation  here 
given  to  their  Creator  may  be  applied  to  them. 
They  have  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of 
turning.  The  original  word  here  has  become  one 
of  the  technical  words  of  astronomy.  It  is  “  paral¬ 
lax.”  These  fixed  stars  have  no  parallax  or  sen¬ 
sible  change  of  position  in  the  skies.  Science, 
indeed,  claims  to  have  discovered  by  its  delicate 
instruments  a  slight  parallax  in  two  or  three  of 
the  nearest  of  them.  But  with  these  few  excep¬ 
tions,  and  these  as  the  result  of  a  marvellous 
scrutiny,  these  innumerable  lights  have  no  paral¬ 
lax.  That  is,  they  are  so^far  away  that,  by  obser¬ 
vations  taken  six  months  apart  and  with  a  base¬ 
line  the  whole  diameter  of  the  earth’s  orbit,  they 
give  no  appreciable  angle  of  deviation.  Their 
place  in  the  heavens  is  unchanged. 


12  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


And  if  this  be  true  of  these  heavenly  orbs, 
how  much  more  can  we  assert  of  the  Father  of 
them  that  with  Him  there  is  no  variableness. 
These  multitudinous  stars  are  all  in  motion  and 
passing  through  vast  changes,  although  they  seem 
not  so  to  us.  “They  shall  perish,  but  Thou  re- 
mainest :  yea,  all  of  them  shall  wax  old  as  doth  a 
garment,  and  as  a  vesture  shalt  Thou  fold  them 
up,  and  they  shall  be  changed.  But  Thou  art  the 
same,  and  Thy  years  shall  not  fail.” 

This  title,  then,  presents  God  to  us  as  the  Maker 
of  these  countless  stars  which  shine  by  their  own 
light  through  the  infinite  depths  of  space,  and  all 
the  mighty  forces  of  which  they  are  the  centres 
as  ministers  of  His,  that  do  His  pleasure. 

And  what  a  large  idea  does  this  give  us  of  our 
God !  These  heights  and  depths  around  us  are 
strewn  with  stars  like  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore 
for  multitude.  Science  has  multiplied  our  powers 
of  vision  a  thousand-fold.  And  as  far  out  as  she 
is  able  to  peer  she  finds  the  near  and  the  remoter 
shores  of  space  crowded  with  their  constellations, 
and  these  lighting  the  way  to  myriads  more  be¬ 
yond.  And  the  spectroscope  has  told  us  that  the 
very  same  minerals  and  gases  we  find  here  on  the 
earth  compose  the  substance  of  our  sun,  ahd  blaze 
in  the  photospheres  of  these  countless  suns.  They 
are  all  made  out  of  the  same  materials.  One 
mind  must  have  contrived  and  one  hand  have 


THE  FATHER  OF  LIGHTS. 


13 


formed  them  all.  And  of  all  these  lights  He  is 
the  Father  who  is  also  said  to  be  the  Former  of 
our  bodies  and  the  Father  of  our  spirits. 

But  still  we  have  to  ask,  Why  is  this  title 
employed  in  this  connection?  It  would  seem  as 
if  it  anticipates  the  very  objections  we  hear  in 
these  days  against  the  doctrine  of  an  overruling 
God,  the  Almighty  Maker  and  Provider  of  all 
things. 

Men  argue  that  if  there  be  a  Creator  of  so  vast 
a  system,  He  surely  cannot  concern  Himself  with 
the  minute  care  of  all  the  tiny  creatures  who  in¬ 
habit  this  speck  in  His  domains.  Astronomy,  it 
is  said,  sinks  this  earth  the  Bible  makes  so  much 
of  quite  out  of  sight.  And  then  again,  it  is  as¬ 
serted,  if  there  be  a  God,  He  has  made  the  universe 
to  be  a  system  of  fixed  and  unalterable  laws.  Its 
potent  forces  know  no  change  and  no  defeat. 
Wise  men  tell  us  that  this  system  is  just  as  stolid 
and  unyielding  to  the  voice  of  prayer  as  is  the 
moon  to  the  baying  of  a  dog. 

This  title,  then,  opposes  itself  to  all  these  atheistic 
or  naturalistic  conceptions.  It  asserts  that  behind 
this  vast  and  rigid  system  there  is  enthroned  a 
Father.  That  it  should  be  an  orderly  system  is 
only  a  proof  of  the  perfect  wisdom  with  which 
it  was  at  first  adjusted.  There  is  no  need  of 
rectification  or  amendment.  But  it  is  also  a 

beneficent  system.  Behind  these  huge  batteries 

2 


14  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


of  natural  forces  there  is  a  benevolent  director  of 
them  all. 

Even  science  teaches  that  these  lights  in  the 
heavens  are  the  repositories  of  those  mighty  forces 
which  pervade  all  space  and  sustain  us  and  all 
things  in  daily  being.  Here  on  the  earth,  the  little 
nook  of  creation  with  which  we  are  most  familiar, 
it  was  these  all-pervasive  forces  that  rounded  its 
nebulous  mass  into  a  world  and  diversified  it  with 
continents  and  seas,  and  smoothed  its  wrinkled 
surface  into  the  lovely  hills  and  dales  among 
which  man  was  placed.  They  have  tempered  its 
climate  into  this  happy  equilibrium  between  heat 
and  cold,  and  stored  it  with  mineral  wealth  and 
clothed  it  with  verdure  and  mantled  it  with  beauty 
as  a  fit  abode  for  the  intelligent  creature  who  was 
to  be  placed  upon  it.  And  they  now  ripen  its 
growing  crops  and  fill  it  with  fertility  and  abun¬ 
dant  food  for  man  and  beast.  Even  human 
science  confesses  this,  and  traces  back  these  benefi¬ 
cent  effects  to  the  sun,  primal  source  of  light  to 
the  earth,  and  to  the  universal  forces  that  flash 
from  all  suns.  It  bids  us  behold  in  these  the 
source  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift. 

But  Revelation  takes  us  one  step  further.  It 
not  only  takes  us  to  the  threshold  of  this  temple 
of  the  skies,  but  bids  us  enter  and  behold  therein 
the  face  of  our  Father.  It  teaches  us  not  only 
that  He  framed  and  now  manages  this  wide  and 


THE  FATHER  OF  LIGHTS. 


15 


complex  system  of  forces,  but  that  He  specially 
has  made  them  to  be  the  bearers  of  His  bounty 
and  love  to  us.  They  are  the  jewelled  fingers  on 
His  hand  by  which  He  reaches  down  to  us  every 
good  and  perfect  gift.  The  long  fingers  of  light 
and  of  electric  energy  that  reach  down  from  sun 
and  stars,  that  search  out  the  seed  buried  in  the 
ground  and  warm  it  info  life  and  fruitfulness  to 
give  us  food,  are  the  fingers  of  His  loving  hand. 
These  hidden  forces  that  paint  for  us  the  land¬ 
scape  and  tint  the  clouds  with  gold  and  crimson 
in  the  evening  sky  are  part  of  His  thoughtful, 
tender  ministry  to  us.  And  equally  all  our  social 
blessings  are  rivulets  from  the  same  stream  of 
bountv.  These  invisible  forces  of  nature,  how 
little  we  know  of  their  influence  upon  us  and  over 
us.  They  are  potent  in  all  the  influences  that 
mould  society  and  nations.  They  control  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  every  individual  life.  They  have 
power  to  bless  and  to  curse,  to  smite  and  to  heal. 
They  fill  the  mountains  around  about  us  with 
horses  and  chariots  of  fire. 

And  this  suggests  the  inquiry  by  what  right 
science,  which  traces  back  the  phenomena  of  mo¬ 
tion  and  of  being  to  these  forces,  assumes  that 
they  are  simply  material  and  unintelligent.  The 
only  system  of  forces  in  nature  or  in  history  which 
the  Bible  recognizes  is  an  intelligent  system.  The 
executive  forces  of  “  the  Father  of  lights”  in 


16  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN-. 


creation  bear  such  names  as  these, — u  Angels, 
Principalities,  and  Powers.”  These  names  imply 
intelligence.  .  They  transcend  the  sphere  of  the 
material.  They  are  spiritual  powers.  It  is  a 
false  and  fatal  mistake  to  assume  that  these  forces, 
of  which  science  can  take  some  cognizance,  but  of 
whose  real  nature  she  is  ignorant,  are  blind,  un¬ 
thinking  agents.  Scripture  does  not  so  regard 
them.  If  it  does  not  positively  identify  these 
spiritual  forces  called  “  angels”  with  the  great 
forces  of  nature  which  we  call  light,  heat,  gravi¬ 
tation,  and  so  on,  it  implies  that  the  connection 
between  them  is  most  intimate.*  And  this  gives 

a  new  force  and  beautv  to  the  statement  we  are 

•/ 

considering,  that  operating  through  all  these 
forces,  compelling  them  to  be  the  messengers  of 
His  care  and  bounty  to  us,  is  their  Father  and 
ours,  from  whom  cometh  down  to  as,  through 
their  ministry,  every  good  and  perfect  gift. 

And  here  we  turn  aside  to  enforce  a  special 
lesson  from  this  passage.  The  apostle  had  been 
speaking  in  this  connection  about  the  transient 
fickle  good  which  men  pursue  when  they  are 
drawn  aside  after  their  own  lust  and  enticed.  He 
urges  them  not  to  be  thus  decoyed.  For  all  true 
and  substantial  blessings  every  perfect  and  well- 


*  Heb.  i.  7,  revised  version  ;  Ps.  xviii.  10 ;  civ.  3,  4,  etc. ; 
Kev.  xiv.  18. 


THE  FATHER  OF  LIGHTS. 


17 


rounded  gift  will  come  to  them  from  Him  who 
made  all  things,  if  we  do  not  err  from  His  ways. 
And  whatever  short-lived  good  a  sinful  course 
secures,  we  shall  find  ourselves  running  abreast 
of  that  eternal  tide  of  blessing  which  God  set  in 
motion  when  He  made  the  worlds. 

But  we  pass  now  to  consider  the  statement  an¬ 
nexed  to  the  declaration  we  have  been  considering, 
that  all  good  gifts  come  down  to  us  from  the  pri¬ 
mal  source  of  qreation’s  lights.  u  Of  His  own 
will  begat  He  us  with  the  word  of  His  truth,  that 
we  should  be  a  kind  of  first  fruits  of  His  crea¬ 
tures.”  Here  we  are  introduced  to  the  reason 
why  God  so  constructed  this  system  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  as  to  make  it  a  store-house  of  blessings  for 
us.  Here  also  we  get  a  glimpse  into  this  mystery 
of  creation  which  science  cannot  give  us,  which 
the  wisdom  of  this  world  never  dreamed  of.  It 
is  here  intimated  that  this  universe  of  worlds  is  a 
great  field  which  God  is  tilling  for  a  harvest.  He 
lias  a  certain  kind  of  fruit  He  wants  to  produce 
upon  it.  Mere  boundless  wastes  of  fiery  suns  are 
not  what  He  is  seeking  in  this  system  of  creation. 
He  wants  it  peopled  with  living  intelligent  crea¬ 
tures.  Here  on  the  earth  He  has  ploughed  and 
tilled  and  raised  successive  forms  of  animal  life, 
each  series  higher  than  the  last,  until,  last  and 
highest  of  all,  He  has  produced  man,  made  in 

His  own  image.  Even  evolution  teaches  this. 
b  2* 


18  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


Now,  in  an  important  sense,  this  human  race 
are  the  first  fruits  of  His  creatures.  The  one  per¬ 
fect  member  of  this  race  was  the  Archetype  to¬ 
ward  which  the  whole  system  converges.  (Coloss, 
i.  15.)  He  is  the  Ideal  Man,  the  First-Born  of 
every  creature.  And  although  this  Perfect  Type 
or  Image  of  God  was  not  attained  in  Him  and 
cannot  be  in  us,  except  through  death  and  new 
creation,  yet  in  this  transition  stage  of  being, 
while  yet  we  bear  the  image  of  the  earthy  man¬ 
hood,  this  race,  in  virtue  of  its  present  likeness  to 
God  and  its  future  possibilities,  is  the  noblest  har¬ 
vest  yet  ripened  on  this  soil.  It  is  not  said  of 
angels,  however  near  they  may  be  to  Him,  that 
they  are  God’s  embodied  image.  Man,  so  far  as 
we  know,  alone  sustains  this  dignity.  And  science, 
so  far  as  it  speaks  at  all  upon  this  point,  seems  to 
confirm  the  supposition  that  nowhere  in  the  uni¬ 
verse  is  there  a  creature  so  linked  to  God  in  origin 
and  destiny  as  man.  It  asserts  that  the  nearest 
of  all  the  heavenly  bodies,  the  moon,  cannot  be 
inhabited.  It  fails  to  find  the  proper  conditions 
of  cosmical  order  and  chemical  equilibrium  suita¬ 
ble  for  the  abode  of  such  a  creature  upon  any  of 
our  sister  planets  in  the  solar  system.  They  all 
seem  to  be  in  some  one  of  those  formative  stages 
through  which  the  earth,  in  its  previous  geologic 
history,  has  passed.  You  could  never  find  a  home 
for  such  a  creature  as  man  amid  the  hot  and  vapor- 


THE  FATHER  OF  LIGHTS. 


19 


ous  masses  with  which  Jupiter  is  belted,  nor  among 
the  incandescent  vapors  of  the  sun.  And  all  the 
other  visible  bodies  of  the  universe  are  similar 
suns. 

There  is  nothing,  then,  in  science  which  contra¬ 
dicts  the  Bible  statement  that  man,  made  in  God’s 
image,  is  the  first  fruits  of  His  creatures.  On  the 
other  hand,  modern  astronomy,  which  has  ad¬ 
vanced  far  beyond  the  speculations  of  Thomas 
Dick  and  other  glowing  writers,  who  wrote  splen¬ 
did  lectures  about  other  inhabited  worlds,  now  dis¬ 
pels  this  fanciful  imagery  with  the  stern  and  some¬ 
what  modest  statement  that,  so  far  as  she  can  see , 
she  does  not  find  anywhere  else  the  same  favorable 
conditions  for  created  life  as  exist  here  on  the 
earth.  Such  conditions  may  exist  indeed  in  other 
solar  systems.  All  that  can  be  affirmed  is  that 
science  has  revealed  nothing  which  contravenes 
this  statement  of  Scripture,  that  the  first  fruits  of 
God’s  creatures,  the  most  advanced  and  ripened 
harvest  that  has  yet  blossomed  out  upon  these 
sparkling  fields,  is  this  race  of  men.  And  there¬ 
fore  we  can  better  understand  why  they  are  stored 
with  blessing  for  us.  The  purpose  He  had  in 
mind  when  He  framed  these  worlds  was  to  crown 
this  system  of  His  works  with  an  embodied  image 
of  Himself.  The  fiery  nebulous  vapors  that  first 
filled  all  space  were  created  as  they  wTere,  because 
they  were  to  contain  the  substances  and  the  forma- 


20  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN . 


tive  energies  out  of  which  man  was  to  be  evolved. 
These  rounded  the  earth  into  shape  because  she 
contained  within  her  womb  this  anointed  race. 
The  139th  Psalm  implies  this  when  it  sings,  “I 
will  praise  thee,  for  I  am  fearfully  and  wonder- 
fully  made.  My  substance  was  not  hid  from  thee, 
when  I  was  made  in  secret,  and  curiously  wrought 
in  the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth.  Thine  eyes  did 
see  my  substance,  yet  being  imperfect;  and  in  thy 
book  all  my  members  were  written,  which  in  con¬ 
tinuance  were  fashioned,  when  as  yet  there  was 
none  of  them.”  Observe  here  how  the  Word  of 
God  reverses  and  puts  to  shame  the  speculations 
of  men.  Men  would  look  upon  the  human  frame 
as  the  proficient  product  of  a  tentative  struggle  in 
nature  up  through  lower  forms  of  life  until  this 
higher  has  been  reached.  As  if  she  had  been 
blindly  struggling  after  more  perfect  organism 
under  no  higher  impulse  than  a  general  tendency 
toward  improvement.  The  law  of  u  the  survival 
of  the  fittest”  is  put  forth  as  adequate  to  account 
for  this  result.  Whereas  the  Bible  represents  the 
creation  of  man  as  definitely  in  the  mind  of  God 
at  the  beginning  of  the  series,  and  all  its  lower 
links  as  preparatory  thereto.  So  that  man  derives 
his  importance,  not  in  that  he  is  the  highest  pro¬ 
duct  of  a  long  series  of  previous  lower  organisms, 
but  these  lower  forms  derive  all  their  importance 
from  the  fact  that  they  prefigure  man.  They  are 


THE  FATHER  OF  LIGHTS. 


21 


rude  draughts  of  the  more  perfect  model  which 
was  to  be  hereafter  fashioned,  and  all  of  whose 
members  were  shaped  and  wrought  out  in  the 
thought  of  God  from  the  foundation  of  the  world. 

We  go  back,  then,  in  order  to  find  the  purposes 
of  our  creation,  to  the  point  where  the  Bible  con¬ 
ducts  us,  “  before  the  worlds  were  made.”  And 
so  we  find  a  good  reason  why  He  made  these 
worlds  of  light  to  be  store-houses  to  us  of  every 
good  and  perfect  gift.  We  were  to  be  the  first 
fruits  of  His  creatures. 

But  while  all  this  is  true,  in  a  general  way,  of 
the  human  race,  truth  compels  us  to  state  further 
that  only  a  select  class  of  this  favored  race  is 
reaching  toward  the  end  of  its  creation. 

While  humanity,  as  such,  is  a  first  fruits  of 
creation,  Scripture  speaks  about  a  first  fruits  com¬ 
pany  from  this  race  of  mankind.  Indeed,  this 
designation  is  specially  limited  and  applied  by  St. 
James  to  Christians,  those  who  have  been  begotten 
“  by  the  word  of  His  truth.”  Scripture  is  replete 
with  references  to  this  anointed  race.*  Of  them 
Jesus  is  the  First-Born  and  the  Head.  He  is 
presented  in  the  New  Testament  as  a  newly- 
created  man.  He  was  first  on  earth  as  an  earthly 
man,  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh.  But,  pass¬ 
ing  through  death,  He  arose  on  the  other  side  of 


*  Rom.  viii.  29 ;  Coloss.  i.  18  ;  Rev.  xiv.  4. 


22  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


it  in  a  higher  order  of  manhood,  a  glorified  and 
immortal  man.  Hence  He  is  styled  “  the  Begin¬ 
ning  of  the  Creation  of  God,”  “  the  First-Born 
from  the  dead.”  The  grand  archetypal  Image  of 
God,  the  pattern  of  manhood,  which  He  had  in 
mind  when  He  made  the  worlds,  was  at  last  pro¬ 
duced.  And  so  when  He  rose  from  the  dead  He 
took  His  rightful  place,  as  the  Son  and  Heir  of 
God,  on  the  summit  of  this  system  of  creation. 
All  its  principalities  and  powers  were  put  beneath 
His  feet.*  He  was  truly  the  first  fruits  man, 
first  begotten  from  the  dead,  the  Image  of  the 
Invisible  God,  the  appointed  Heir  of  all  things. f 
But  Scripture  also  teaches  that  He  is  the  First- 
Born  among  many  brethren.  There  is  a  church 
of  the  first-born,  whose  names  are  enrolled  in 
heaven,  who  are  predestinated  to  be  conformed  to 
His  image,  and  who  are  therefore  joint  heirs  with 
Him.  This  is  the  royal  race  of  whom  these  words 
are  strictly  true  :  “  A  kind  of  first  fruits  of  His 
creatures.”  They  are  to  stand  in  the  front  rank 
and  to  wear  the  crown  of  this  vast  empire.  They 
are  to  be  set  over  all  the  works  of  His  hands.J 
Babes  and  sucklings  they  may  be  now,  as  the 
8th  Psalm  teaches,  of  this  dying  race.  But  out 
of  their  mouth  has  God  ordained  the  strength 
that  shall  still  the  enemy  and  the  avenger;  that 


*  Eplies.  ii.  18-23.  f  Heb.  i.  2.  %  Heb.  ii.  6-11. 


THE  FATHER  OF  LIGHTS. 


23 


shall  rescue  the  earth  and  all  these  blighted  fields 
from  the  destroyer’s  reign.  The  God  of  peace 
shall  bruise  Satan  under  their  feet.  And  through 
them,  after  their  resurrection  from  the  dead,  shall 
the  lustre  of  God’s  grace  and  bounty  be  diffused 
not 'only  over  the  earth,  now  mantled  with  the 
curse  of  sin  and  death,  but  over  wider  and  wider 
circuits  of  creation,  until  all  its  waste  and  fiery 
fields  shall  blossom  out  into  life  and  beauty,  and 
become  vocal  with  His  praise. 

All  this,  and  more  than  we  can  express  or 
conceive,  is  implied  in  this  and  kindred  passages 
of  Scripture,  which  teach  that  we,  who  have 
believed  on  Jesus,  and  have  been  made  partakers 
of  His  life,  are  now  a  kind  of  first  fruits  of 
His  creatures. 

And  so  again  we  see  a  new  force  and  beauty  in 
the  previous  statement  that  God  has  stored  all 
creation’s  lights  with  blessing  for  us.  This  was 
His  most  cherished  thought  in  their  formation. 
To  this  end  He  hung  them  in  the  firmament.  To 
this  end  He  first  marshalled  and  now  directs  all 
the  forces  that  traverse  these  boundless  plains. 
“  Are  they  not  all  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  to 
minister  for  them  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation  ?” 
On  the  silent  wings  of  these  forces,  which  men 
call  by  such  names  as  Light,  Electricity,  Gravita¬ 
tion,  but  concerning  whose  true  nature  they  know 
but  little,  on  their  darting  pinions  flashing  from 


24  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


star  to  star,  across  inconceivable  chasms,  leaping 
down  abysmal  depths,  searching  out  the  buried 
seed  and  raising  it  up  into  an  hundred-fold  as  food 
for  us,  stealing  into  our  chambers  on  the  wings 
of  the  morning,  folding  their  wings  around  us  in 
the  darkness  of  the  night,  shielding  us  from  the 
pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness  and  the  de¬ 
struction  that  wasteth  at  noonday,  bearing  us  up 
in  their  hands  lest  at  any  time  we  dash  our  foot 
against  a  stone,  these  invisible  messengers  are  our 
loving  guardians,  our  bounteous  almoners,  bring¬ 
ing  down  from  their  Father  above  and  our  Father 
every  good  and  perfect  gift  to  us,  whom  He  has 
designated  to  this  high  honor,  to  be  a  kind  of 
first  fruits  of  His  creatures. 

Yea,  more,  St.  Paul,  in  the  epistle  to  the  Romans, 
warrants  ns  in  going  further.  He  represents  the 
whole  creation,  not  only  as  charged  with  this 
ministry  of  mercy  to  us;  it  awaits  with  longing 
desire,  as  a  mother  waits  for  her  unborn  child,  the 
redemption  of  our  bodies  and  the  time  of  onr 
manifestation  as  the  sons  of  God.*  Their  out- 
birth  into  the  glory  of  the  new  creation  shall  be 
her  rest  and  joy.  So  closely  has  God  bound  up 
this  mystery  of  redemption  with  this  mystery  of 
creation. 

And  if  our  eyes  are  anointed  with  the  eye-salve 


*  llom.  viii ;  19-22. 


THE  FATHER  OF  LIGHTS. 


25 


of  His  word,  if  we  truly  prize  these  great  lights 
kindled  on  its  pages  to  guide  us  through  the  dark¬ 
ness  of  this  present  time,  no  false  lights  of  human 
wisdom  or  science  can  ever  obscure  in  our  souls 
the  light  of  this  bright  and  Morning  Star. 

Nothing  shall  close  our  eyes  to  the  fact  of  God’s 
presence  all  around  us,  of  His  loving  ministry  of 
mercy  and  of  chastisement,  too,  through  all  this 
system  of  laws  and  forces  to  which  we  are  now 
subject.  Beyond  Sirius,  beyond  those  vast  fields 
of  light  across  which  Orion  leads  his  bands,  we 
shall  discern  the  shining  of  this  greater  light, — 
“  The  Lord  God  is  our  Sun  and  our  Shield.” 
All  nature  will  seem  to  us  alive  with  God,  and 
we  shall  see  His  hand  and  feel  the  warm  beating 
of  His  heart  in  all,  and  all  its  agencies  of  good  or 
ill  will  seem  but  fingers  on  the  hand  by  which 
He  is  leading  us  up  along  our  pilgrim  path  on  to 
the  heights  of  eternal  life  and  glory.  There  no 
veil  of  created  things  shall  any  longer  hide  from 
us  the  full  vision  of  our  Father.  The  veil  will 
be  lifted,  and  we  shall  see  Him  face  to  face  and 
know  Him  heart  to  heart. 


n 


3 


♦ 


XX. 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


And  the  Woi'd  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us. — St. 

John  i.  14. 


No  Scripture  phrase  is  more  deeply  significant 
than  tli is,  “  The  Word  of  God.”  Christ  is  the 
complete  revelation  to  us  of  the  Father.  Hence 
He  is  denominated  “The  Word.”  Of  Him  are 
predicated  the  titles,  the  acts,  the  names,  and  at¬ 
tributes  of  God.  “  Without  Him,”  St.  John 
affirms,  “was  not  anything  made  that  was  made.” 

It  was  the  special  mission  of  this  beloved 
apostle  to  present  this  mystery.  The  Word,  of 
whom  he  writes,  is  not  an  attribute  but  a  person, 
who,  from  everlasting,  has  been  the  outgoing  of 
the  Father  in  the  works  of  creation  and  redemp¬ 
tion.  This  divine  Person,  he  tells  us,  was  made 
flesh  and  dwelt  among  us. 

Such  is  the  great  mystery  of  godliness.  Jesus 
Christ,  who  we  know  was  man,  was  truly  God. 
The  Christian  confession  concerning  Him  is  that 
of  St.  Peter,  “We  believe  and  are  sure  that  Thou 

art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.”  On 
26 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


27 


this  Rock  the  church  is  built.  And  he  that  so 
confesses  is  born  of  God. 

As  this  is  the  foundation-truth  in  the  Christian 
scheme,  by  which  it  stands  or  falls,  it  is  not  sur¬ 
prising  that  the  chief  assaults  of  unbelief  have 
been  from  the  first  aimed  against  it.  Perhaps 
from  no  quarter  has  it  been  more  plausibly  as¬ 
sailed  than  from  the  teachings  of  science,  falsely 
so  called.  Since  the  time  St.  John  wrote,  “All 
things  were  made  by  Him,”  science  has  revolu¬ 
tionized  the  common  conception  of  the  universe. 
Then  men  thought  the  earth  the  greatest  thing  in 
creation.  Now  we  know  it  to  be  but  a  speck  in 
the  mighty  volume  of  star-dust  the  breath  of  God 
has  rolled  through  boundless  space.  A  drop  to 
the  ocean,  a  grain  of  sand  to  its  wide  stretch  of 
shore,  is  all  that  the  earth  is  to  the  universe. 
And  yet  we  are  confronted  with  the  amazing  an¬ 
nouncement  that  the  Maker  of  all  these  worlds 
was  born  a  babe  in  Bethlehem.  “  He  was  made 
flesh  and  dwelt  among  us.”.  “The  world  might 
have  believed  that,”  says  the  sceptic,  “eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,  but  the  advanced  science  of 
our  day  pities  its  credulity.” 

But  let  us  see  whether  this  cavil,  so  boastingly 
put  forth,  has  any  ground  even  in  reason  or 
science  to  rest  upon.  It  is  a  sufficient  reply  to  it 
to  say  that  there  is  something  grander  in  creation 
than  all  this  material  glory.  The  mind  that  is  able 


28  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


to  investigate  these  subjects,  that  can  reach  over 
these  vast  spaces  and  measure  these  huge  orbs, 
that  can  range  on  wings  of  light  through  these 
trackless  depths  and  pay  its  intelligent  tribute  of 
praise  to  the  Maker  of  these  countless  worlds,  is 
greater  than  the  worlds  themselves.  Jesus  taught 
men  that  the  whole  world  was  not  of  equal  value 
with  one  human  soul.  And  this  mass  of  worlds, 
considered  as  agglomerations  of  matter,  are  not 
worth  so  much.  Moreover,  the  element  of  size 
provides  no  standard  by  which  to  measure  the 
thoughts  and  ways  of  God.  Before  Him,  the 
Infinite,  all  finite  things  are  equally  great  or 
small.  If  the  earth  were  millions  of  times  larger 
than  it  is,  and  man  proportionately  enlarged  in 
person  and  in  faculties,  the  disproportion  between 
him  and  his  Maker  would  not  be  one  whit  the 
less. 

But  this  objection  takes  much  for  granted  that 
is  not  allowable  in  an  argument  that  pretends  to 
base  itself  on  the  exact  teachings  of  science.  It 
assumes  that  this  multitude  of  worlds  are  inhab¬ 
ited,  and  that  these  inhabitants  are  as  high,  if  not 
higher,  in  the  scale  of  being  than  man.  But  for 
this  assertion  it  gives  no  proof.  No  one  has  ever 
seen  or  conversed  with  these  alleged  beings.  True, 
the  Word  of  God  speaks  of  angels.  But  the  ob¬ 
jector  who  will  not  submit  to  that  Word  in  one 
thing  must  not  appeal  to  it  to  sustain  another. 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


29 


If  the  appeal  be  to  that  infallible  source,  we  dis¬ 
cover  there  that  redeemed  man  has  a  higher  place 
in  the  counsels  of  God  and  a  higher  destiny  than 
angels.  “  Know  ye  not  that  ye  shall  judge  an¬ 
gels?”  This  assertion  that  the  universe  is  peopled 
by  creatures  like  man  is  all  conjecture,  and  cannot 
be  used  in  any  way  to  discredit  a  plain  statement 
of  the  Bible.  Indeed,  science  herself,  so  far  as 
she  is  able  to  teach  anything  on  this  subject, 
seems  to  contradict  the  assumption.  She  is  not 
able  to  find  elsewhere  the  conditions  under  which 
human  life  exists  here.  She  affirms  that  this 
planet  was  in  existence  an  inconceivably  long 
period  after  “  the  beginning,”  before  man  was 
placed  upon  it,  and  that  the  bodies  nearest  to  it, 
with  which  she  is  best  acquainted,  the  moon  and 
sister  planets,  do  not  give  evidence  of  the  same 
settled  condition  of  things  that  we  find  here. 
Before  the  earth  became  the  fit  abode  of  man 
there  were  vast  convulsions  and  deluges,  and 
commotions  of  land  and  sea  and  air,  that  would 
not  admit  of  his  existence,  much  less  his  devel¬ 
opment  into  the  social  and  civilized  man  of  our 
day. 

Mighty  forces,  chemical  and  mechanical,  wrought 
on  this  globe  for  ages  before  it  was  well  rounded 
and  its  wrinkles  smoothed  into  the  lovely  hills 
and  dales  among  which  man  was  placed.  We 

might  infer,  a  priori,  the  improbability  that  the 

3  * 


30  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


planets,  with  their  varying  distances  and  motions, 
would  all  come  at  the  same  time  to  such  equilib¬ 
rium  and  repose.  And  this  inference  the  obser¬ 
vations  of  science  confirm.  There  is  good  evi¬ 
dence  that  the  forces  of  nature  have  not  so  thor¬ 
oughly  done  their  work  on  the  other  bodies  of 
this  solar  system.  The  body  nearest  to  us,  the 
moon,  is  without  an  atmosphere.  Jupiter  and 
Saturn  seem  to  be  immense  fluid  masses,  shrouded 
and  belted  with  humid  vapors.  The  telescopic 
appearances  of  the  planets  indicate  a  cosmical 
condition  similar  to  the  earth’s,  in  the  formative 
stages  through  which  science  insists  she  passed 
long  before  man  was  created.  And  if  it  be  true 
that  the  period  of  his  existence  here,  compared 
with  this  period  of  preparation,  is  extremely  small, 
even  the  argument  from  analogy  favors  the  sup¬ 
position  that  these  other  bodies  are  not  yet  the 
abode  of  any  such  race  of  beings.  That  God 
should  leave  them  still  without  such  inhabitants 
is  no  more  improbable  than  that  He  should  have 
left  the  earth  so  long. 

As  for  the  fixed  stars,  we  know  that  they  are 
suns,  luminous  with  mighty  fires  that  feed  on  the 
same  elements  which  the  spectroscope  discovers 
in  our  sun’s  photosphere.  And  as  for  the  in- 
•  visible  worlds  revolving  around  them,  what  we 
know  of  them  is  all  conjecture;  so  that  it  is  pre¬ 
sumption  to  affirm,  as  it  would  be  wholly  to  deny, 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


31 


that  these  innumerable  worlds  are  peopled  with 
creatures  as  high  in  the  scale  of  being  as  man. 

There  is  no  valid  argument,  then,  from  the 
immensity  of  creation  against  the  Bible  statement 
that  the  Word,  by  whom  all  things  were  made, 
was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us.  He  came 
for  the  good  of  something  more  precious  even 
than  these  illimitable  fields  of  sparkling  suns. 
Moreover,  there  is  no  scientific  evidence  against 
the  view  which  Scripture  favors,  if  it  does  not 
directly  teach,  that  nowhere,  through  these  wide 
realms,  is  there  a  creature  so  linked  to  God  in 
origin  and  destiny  as  man. 

But,  are  all  these  worlds  then  made  for  naught? 
Are  these  unbounded  fields  a  barren  waste,  or 
have  they  no  higher  end  than  to  reveal  the  glory 
of  their  Creator  to  us?  Surely  it  would  be  folly 
and  conceit  so  to  affirm. 

That  these  worlds  are  to  be  inhabited  by  intel¬ 
ligent  subjects  of  the  one  kingdom  of  the  heavens 
we  may  not  doubt.  But  that  these  glowing  fields 
of  fire  are  yet  prepared  for  their  abode  cannot  be 
proved.  Science  affirms  that  the  earth  passed 
through  immense  cycles  of  preparation  before  it 
was  ready  for  man.  So  that,  to  say  the  least,  she 
is  debarred  from  disputing  that  cosmogony  which 
Scripture  compels  us  to  construct,  and  which  as¬ 
signs  to  the  creation  of  man  the  crowning  place 
in  tli is  whole  material  system,  and  makes  him  the 


32  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


focal  point  around  which  the  lines  of  God’s  work¬ 
ing  turn,  as  they  sweep  down  from  a  past  eternity 
and  curve  away  into  the  eternity  to  come. 

The  order  of  the  universe,  as  gathered  from 
Scripture  and  science,  we  would  state  somewhat 
thus. 

Of  course  there  never  was  a  time  when  God 
began  to  be.  “  He  inhabiteth  eternity.”  Co-ordi¬ 
nate  and  coextensive  with  Himself  there  was  the 
outgoing  of  His  essential  being  in  the  person  of 
His  Son,  who  is  “  the  only-begotten  Son  of  God, 
begotten  of  the  Father  before  all  worlds,  God  of 
God,  Light  of  Light,  very  God  of  very  God, 
begotten,  not  made,  being  of  one  substance  with 
the  Father.”  So  St.  John  begins,  “In  the  begin¬ 
ning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God, 
and  the  Word  was  God.”  This  outgoing  person 
from  the  Father  is  His  agent  in  creation.  “He 
created  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ.”  The  universe 

CD  f 

is  thus  an  outflow  of  creative  power  and  wisdom 
from  Him  in  whom  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead.  And  now  science  conies  in  to  suggest, 
if  not  to  teach,  that  these  outflowing  works  of 
God  were  at  first  one  mighty  tide  of  elemental 
matter,  in  whose  abysmal  depths  were  hidden  the 
forms  into  which  it  was  to  unfold.  On  the  bosom 
of  this  chaotic  deep  the  Spirit,  “who  proceedeth 
from  the  Father  and  the  Son,”  the  formative 
energy  of  God,  as  His  creative  energy  is  expressed 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


33 


through  the  Son,  moved.  We  speak  now  of  the 
creation  of  matter.  And  yet  what  is  matter? 
We  know  as  little  about  it  as  we  do  about  spirit. 
The  tendency  among  able  and  even  devout  students 
of  nature,  like  Faraday,  is  to  regard  it  as  a  group 
of  centres  of  force.  But  the  crime  and  ignorance 
of  science  has  been  to  regard  the  forces  of  nature 
as  merely  material  and  unintelligent.  We  believe 
that,  from  the  first,  embosomed  in  the  vast  pro¬ 
found,  were  spiritual  powers,  creatures  of  God, 
intelligent  and  mighty  forces  operating  in  this 
new  realm  of  creation;  working  out  the  designs 
and  the  praise  of  its  Author.  These  are  the  angels, 
the  principalities  and  powers  of  Scripture,  known 
to  the  dull  perception  of  science  by  names  which 
suppress  the  idea  of  intelligence  and  life,  such  as 
light,  heat,  electricity,  gravitation,  affinity,  but 
which  the  word  of  God  warrants  us  in  believing 
to  be  the  sons  of  light,  which  it  represents  as  from 
the  first  rejoicing  in  and  over  His  works.  Any 
one  who  has  examined  Scripture  on  this  point 
would  be  surprised  to  learn  how  closely  it  associ¬ 
ates  and  even  identifies  the  angels  with  all  ordinary 
and  extraordinary  operations  of  nature.  These 
mighty  powers,  vivified  and  controlled  by  the 
Almighty  Spirit  of  God,  have  been  at  work  in 
this  realm  of  wonder  from  the  time  that  light 
flashed  from  pole  to  pole  of  the  huge  orb  in  which 
were  then  rolled  up  the  constellations  and  systems 


34  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


of  the  heavens.  They  lighted  the  fires  of  that 
mighty  forge  on  which  the  worlds  were  cast,  and 
from  which  our  sun  is  but  a  scintillating  spark. 
And  they  are  still  at  work  through  this  vast 
domain,  doing  the  good  pleasure  of  Him  who 
covereth  Himself  with  light  as  with  a  garment, 
who  “  maketh  the  winds  His  angels,  His  minis¬ 
ters  a  flaming  fired’ 

But  to  what  end  have  they  been  working? 
Why  have  the  dark  depths  been  lighted  with  the 
innumerable  watch-fires  of  the  encamping  hosts 
of  God  ?  Why  are  their  curtained  tents  pitched 
over  the  boundless  blue  of  space?  It  was,  from 
the  beginning,  in  anticipation  that  God  was,  in  a 
marvellous  way,  to  show  forth  His  glory  in  crea¬ 
tion  and  make  a  full  unfolding  on  its  platform  of 
all  the  attributes  of  His  exhaustless  being.  To 
this  end  creation,  proceeding  from  Him,  was  to  be 
brought  into  marvellous  accord  with  Him  through 
the  creation  of  a  new  order  of  being,  differing  from 
angels,  linked  to  the  world  of  matter,  subject  to 
its  limitations  and  liabilities,  and  yet  made  in  the 
image  of  Himself  and  so  linked  to  God.  The 
mystery  of  evil  was  to  be  allowed  to  do  its  work 
in  this  new  realm  and  upon  this  new  creature  of 
His  hand  that,  in  the  discipline  of  conflict  with 
it,  he  might  gain  a  wider  experience  and  be  pre¬ 
pared  for  his  high  destiny.  Satan  was  suffered  to 
impose  his  yoke  of  bondage  to  corruption  upon 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


35 


the  creation  which  God  had  made,  and  upon 
man  placed  upon  its  summit.  But  the  promise 
was,  that  the  mystery  of  evil  should  rebuked 
and  disclosed  by  the  revelation  of  a  greater  mys¬ 
tery  of  godliness,  by  which  the  fallen  sons  of 
men,  redeemed  from  sin  and  death,  should  be 
made  the  appropriate  and  efficient  instruments  of 
showing  forth  the  glory  and  the  grace  of  God  in 
the  ages  to  come,  and  over  the  field  of  creation 
to  be  disenthralled  at  their  manifestation.  This 
plan,  therefore,  required  that  some  sheltered  nook 
in  the  universe  should  be  made  ready  for  the  in¬ 
troduction  and  abode  of  this  new  creature,  man. 
A  planet  in  this  solar  system,  out  of  innumerable 
systems,  was  designated.  The  earth  was  chosen 
on  which  the  mighty  powers  before  referred  to, 
which  men  call  the  powers  of  nature,  have  wrought 
to  produce  a  settled  order,  such  as  we  do  not  see 
elsewhere.  No  other  planet  of  this  system,  and 
certainly  no  one  of  those  furnaces  of  blazing  fire 
we  call  fixed  stars,  presents  such  an  aspect  o‘f 
chemical  equilibrium  and  cosmical  order  as  we 
find  here,  where  sun  and  moon  and  stars  of  light, 
fire  and  hail,  snow  and  vapors,  stormy  wind, 
mountains  and  all  hills,  fruitful  trees,  and  all 
cedars,  unite  not  only  in  praising  God,  but  in  sus¬ 
taining  and  blessing  man.  Man  then  was  placed 
here,  the  crowning  work  in  the  whole  series  of  the 
works  of  God,  the  Monarch  of  creation;  the 


36  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


earth,  the  most  perfect  work  yet  cast  lip  from  the 
depths  of  this  seething  sea  of  fire,  and  man  upon 
it,  the  pearl  of  great  price,  which  even  the  Lord 
of  glory  came  to  seek  and  find. 

And  how  did  He  come?  He  was  made  flesh, 
and  dwelt  among  us.  He  took  upon  Him  our 
nature,  and  entered  wholly  into  the  sphere  of  this 
human  life  of  suffering  and  conflict.  He  carried 
our  nature  triumphantly  through  all;  paid  down 
the  wages  of  its  sin,  which  is  death,  that,  through 
death,  He  might  destroy  him  that  hath  the  power 
of  it;  and  carried  it  through  resurrection  on  to 
the  pinnacle  of  power  and  of  glory.  God,  in  the 
person  of  His  Son,  has  thus  taken  man  into  per¬ 
petual  union  with  Himself,  and  crowned  him  king 
of  this  dominion.  And,  in  lifting  up  man  to  His 
throne,  He  is  lifting  up  the  whole  system,  of  which 
man  was  made  the  head,  out  of  its  transient 
eclipse,  into  the  eternal  order  and  beauty  of  that 
new  creation,  in  which  the  glory  of  our  Father 
God,  which  we  now  see  through  the  veil  of  things 
temporal  and  through  a  glass  darkly,  shall  be  re¬ 
vealed  to  us  face  to  face  and  heart  to  heart.  His 
Son,  who  made  all  things,  as  Jesus  the  Incarnate 
Word,  once  dead,  but  now  alive  for  evermore,  is 
the  appointed  Heir  of  all  things.  The  First- Be¬ 
gotten  of  the  Father  from  eternity,  in  this  new 
relation  and  order  of  being,  He  is  now  the  First- 
Begotten  from  the  dead,  whom,  when  the  Father 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


37 


raised,  He  declared  to  be  His  Son,  and  commanded 
all  the  angels  of  God  to  worship,  giving  Him 
lordship  over  all  kindreds  of  the  earth,  and  all 
the  hosts  and  realms  of  heaven.  And  this,  His 
passage  through  humiliation  and  death  to  this 
glory,  was  that  He  might  become  the  First-Born 
among  many  brethren.  It  was  to  bring  many 
sons  unto  glory.  So  that  we  are  brought  face  to 
face  with  the  amazing,  the  unspeakable  wonder, 
that  this  mighty  work  of  creation  was  begun,  and 
has  been  carried  on,  and  this  earth  was  selected 
and  fitted  up,  that,  through  conflict  and  triumph 
over  evil,  there  might  be  born  and  trained  here 
that  anointed  race  who  should  be  let  into  the 
deepest  secrets  of  the  mind  and  heart  of  God, 
who  should  be,  in  the  highest  and  most  sacred 
and  endearing  sense,  His  sons,  the  heirs  of  His 
estate,  and  the  prime  ministers  in  the  coming  ad¬ 
ministrations  of  His  kingdom,  that  shall  flood  the 
wide  fields  of  space  with  a  brighter  effulgence  of 
His  glory  than  that  which  sparkles  from  suns  and 
stars.  Man,  in  resurrection  glory,  linked  by  em¬ 
bodied  being  to  the  material  world,  and  yet  in 
origin  and  by  new  creation  made  one  with  God, 
shall  be  the  golden  bond  in  that  heavenly  mar¬ 
riage  of  the  future  when  the  whole  creation,  like 
a  beauteous  bride,  shall  stand  suffused  with  the 
light  and  radiant  with  the  loveliness  of  God. 

We  have  no  sympathy,  then,  with  those  dwarfed 

4 


38  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


conceptions  of  the  ways  of  God  in  creation  and 
redemption  which  make  man  to  be  a  miserable, 
solitary  rebel  in  a  remote  and  insignificant  corner 
of  one  of  His  provinces,  whom  it  were  a  pity  to 
let  perish  without  a  great  effort  to  rescue.  That 
he  is  a  sinner  is,  alas !  too  plain.  That  he  has 
passed  under  the  power  of  death  is  sorrowfully 
true.  That  he  is,  in  the  sight  of  God,  insignifi¬ 
cant,  is  also  true  in  one  aspect ;  in  another,  he  is 
the  pivot  around  which  turns  the  whole  plan  of 
creation,  as  it  has  been  unfolding  in  the  ages  past, 
and  sweeps  away  into  the  ages  to  come.  He  is 
nothing  in  himself;  but  the  good  pleasure  of  God 
has  made  much  of  him.  He  will  never  achieve 
his  destined  greatness,  except,  as  in  union  with 
the  risen  Jesus,  he  shall  rise  into  the  rank  of  ex¬ 
cellent  being  which  He  has  attained.  Many  will 
not  enter  in  through  unbelief ;  but  a  royal  seed 
shall  not  fail  to  come  to  the  same  joy  and  honor, 
who  shall  inherit  all  things,  and  be  kings  and 
priests  unto  God  forever. 

The  discoveries  of  science,  then,  in  these  last 
days,  instead  of  disproving  to  the  devout  believer 
the  Gospel  on  which  all  his  hopes  are  based,  have 
only  disclosed  to  him  sublimer  views  of  the  wis¬ 
dom  and  grace  that  stooped  to  his  low  estate. 
They  have  uncovered  depths  before  hidden,  and 
lifted  him  on  to  splendid  heights  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH . 


39 


Lord, — the  one  theme  which  he  shall  explore  with 
delight  forever,  but  never  exhaust;  for  it  filleth 
all  the  fulness  of  God.  They  have  immeasur¬ 
ably  enlarged  our  conception  of  the  works  of 
Him  who  has  taught  us  to  call  Him  Father,  and 
given  us  views  of  His  eternal  being  and  wisdom 
and  power  of  appalling  magnificence.  But  they 
all  tend  to  magnify  the  riches  of  that  grace  which 
has  let  itself  down  to  us  that  it  might  lift  us  up 
forever. 

Welcome,  then,  the  most  advanced  teachings  of 
all  true  science.  They  let  us  more  into  the  mys¬ 
tery  of  the  love  of  God  in  our  salvation.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Word  made  flesh  gives  us  who  be¬ 
lieve  the  key  that  unlocks  the  arcana  of  the  uni¬ 
verse.  We  see  the  plan  by  which  the  worlds 
were  framed.  This  sublime  masonry  of  suns  and 
stars  is  crowned  on  its  summit  with  a  cross;  and 
on  that  cross  a  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world.  The  structure  is  not  too  grand  and 
costly  for  such  an  altar.  And  on  the  platform, 
where  stands  that  cross,  and  around  its  base,  there 
is  being  gathered  that  royal  company  who  are  to 
be  kings  and  priests  in  this  temple  of  the  skies, 
which  the  glory  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  shall 
lighten.  A  few  short  graphic  strokes  of  St.  John’s 
inspired  pen  sketch  out  this  plan  of  ages,  which 
the  wisdom  of  this  world  could  never  find  out, 
which  its  princes  did  not  know,  else  they  would 


40  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


not  have  crucified  the  Lord  of  glory.  “  In  the 
beginning  was  the  Word.  .  .  .  And  the  Word 
was  God.  .  .  .  All  things  were  made  by  Him. 
.  .  .  The  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among 
us.  .  .  .  To  as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them 
gave  He  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God.” 
This  is  His  manner  of  love  to  us,  he  writes  in  an¬ 
other  place,  that  we  are  now  the  sons  of  God,  al¬ 
though  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be; 
but  when  this  mantling  veil  of  things  visible  is 
rent  and  His  glory  is  revealed,  we  shall  be  like 
Him  and  appear  with  Him  in  glory. 

In  the  light  of  these  reflections,  the  importance 
of  that  cardinal  doctrine  of  our  faith,  the  resur¬ 
rection  of  the  dead,  is  apparent.  There  are  many 
fascinating  speculations  nowadays  that  ethereal ize 
into  emptiness  the  grand  verities  of  revelation, 
making  embodied  life  to  be  the  lowest  form  of 
life,  and  affirming  virtually  that  there  is  no  resur¬ 
rection  of  the  dead.  But  the  doctrine  of  God 
our  Saviour  affirms  that  the  highest  form  of  life 
and  being  has  been  embodied.  The  whole  drift 
and  energetic  action  of  creation  has  been  toward 
the  production  of  a  creature  that  should  be 
fashioned  out  of  its  materials  into  an  image  of 
God.  The  First  Adam,  of  the  earth  earthy,  was 
made  such  an  image.  Sin  and  Satan  were  suffered 
to  pollute  and  deface  the  image  for  a  while ;  but 
only  in  order  to  its  reconstruction  after  a  perfect 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


41 


model  in  Him  who,  as  the  Risen  Man,  is  now  the 
Image  of  the  Invisible  God,  the  First-Born  of 
every  creature.  The  Second  Adam  is  the  Lord 
from  heaven.  It  would  seem  as  if  God  Himself 
would  take  on  a  form,  not  indeed  to  enhance  His 
own  happiness,  but  that  He  might  communicate 
of  His  ineffable  fulness  to  His  creatures.  The 
Word  was  made  flesh,  died  for  our  sins,  and  was 
raised  again  in  the  power  of  an  endless  life,  the 
Type  and  Fount  of  pure  and  indestructible  man¬ 
hood,  set  in  the  highest  heavens,  the  model  and 
the  goal  to  which  He  would  bring  us.  The  being 
clothed  upon,  then,  with  this  glorified  humanity 
at  the  resurrection,  is  as  essential  to  this  plan  of 
ages  as  is  the  keystone  to  an  arch.  The  stock  of 
this  human  family  is  the  noblest  tree  that  has 
blossomed  out  on  the  field  of  the  universe,  the 
grains  in  whose  soil  are  stars ;  and  that  stock  has 
yet  ripened  but  one  fruit,  one  Risen  Man,  the 
corn  of  wheat  that  fell  into  the  ground  and  died 
and  rose  again,  the  germ  of  springing  harvests 
that  shall  make  this  wide  field  glad  with  golden 
sheaves,  and  vocal  before  God  with  perpetual  joy. 
It  is  this  embodied  immortality,  this  incorrupt¬ 
ible  manhood  that  bears  the  stamp  of  God’s  own 
image,  to  the  production  of  which  He  has  been 
working  through  all  the  ages,  for  whose  manifes¬ 
tation  the  whole  creation  now  waits  as  an  expect¬ 
ant  mother  travailing  to  bring  to  light  the  kingly 

4* 


42  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  M AN 


race  whose  birth  shall  be  her  rest  and  joy.  And 
through  this  race,  not  of  disembodied  spirits,  but 
of  men,  who  come  to  their  immortal  manhood  at 
the  redemption  of  their  bodies,  shall  the  designs 
of  God  in  creation  be  unrolled  in  the  ages  to 
come. 

Here,  also,  has  run  the  line  between  truth  and 
error  in  every  age.  Men  have  always  been  seek¬ 
ing  after  an  idea  or  image  of  God.  The  invisible 
things  of  Him,  from  the  creation  of  the  world, 
have  compelled  them  to  the  search.  But  the  uni¬ 
versal  tendency  has  been  to  deprave  this  idea,  to 
deify  the  forces  of  nature,  and  to  compress  the 
glory  of  the  incorruptible  One  within  the  limits 
of  the  corruptible  forms  of  the  creature.  Hence 
all  nations  lapsed  into  idolatry.  From  the  idol¬ 
atrous  mass  the  Jews  were  separated  to  conserve 
and  exhibit  the  true  idea  of  God.  Any  attempt 
to  worship  the  One  Lord  through  the  likeness  of 
anything  in  heaven,  earth,  or  sea  was  the  crown¬ 
ing  sin  to  an  Israelite,  to  be  punished  with  death. 

But  whv  is  it  thus  wrong:  to  look  for  God  in 
these  works  of  PI is  hands?  Has  He  not,  through 
these  forms,  made  known  to  us  Himself?  To 
this  His  word,  from  its  first  announcement  of  the 
fall  and  the  consequent  curse  upon  the  creature, 
replies  that  these  forms  are  not  now  a  just  expres¬ 
sion  of  the  uncreated  One.  They  are  preliminary, 
made  subject  to  vanity.  Their  fashion  passeth 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


43 


away.  And  the  earliest  promises  involve  the 
subsequent  revelation  of  the  great  mystery  of 
godliness,  in  which  the  true  idea  of  God,  the 
express  image  of  His  Person,  was  to  be  disclosed. 

The  Bible  does,  from  the  outset,  recognize  the 
justness  of  the  universal  instinct  of  men  to  look 
for  God  in  some  outward  form  or  expression  of 
Himself.  While  it  commands  them  away  from 
the  creature,  and  declares  their  crime  and  con¬ 
demnation  to  be  the  worship  of  it,  it  is  full  of 
promises  and  types  of  a  subsequent  manifestation 
of  Himself.  Now,  in  these  last  days,  He  hath  so 
made  known  Himself.  Men  beheld  His  glory, 
the  Only-Begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace 
and  truth,  the  Son  of  David  according  to  the  flesh, 
but  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  by 
His  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

Here,  then,  is  the  only  true  Idea  and  Image  of 
God.  Creation  reveals  that  idea  only  as  these 
.works  of  God  sum  themselves  up  in  Him  as  their 
crowning  mystery,  and  as  they  are  refitted  to  show 
forth  His  glory.  These  works  were,  indeed,  from 
the  first,  designed  as  the  platform  on  which  the 
Image  of  the  invisible  God  was  to  beset  up.  In 
this  sense  Jesus  is  said  to  be  the  beginning  of  the 
creation  of  God.  But  it  was  to  be  for  a  while 
shrouded  by  an  eclipse  of  sin  and  death  before  it 
should  finally  mirror  forth  the  glory  of  Him  who 
created  it.  Hence  His  glory  must  first  be  veiled 


44  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


in  human  nature.  In  order  to  redeem  it  He  must 
become  subject  to  death,  and  rise  above  it  in  that 
new  form  of  being  which  creation  was  intended 
to  display,  and  the  human  race  hereafter  to  em¬ 
body.  He  is  now  the  Head  of  the  new  creation, 
who,  when  the  scaffolding  of  things  seen  is  taken 
down,  shall  be  revealed  as  the  Image  of  God  in 
His  temple  of  creation.  But  it  is  not  Christ  Jesus 
after  the  flesh,  but  as  glorified  in  resurrection,  that 
is  this  image.  This  explains  why  no  traces  of  the 
appearance  of  His  person  in  the  flesh  are  left  on 
record,  and  why  even  the  traditions  of  it  were 
lost  from  the  church,  and  why  it  is  now  idolatry 
to  worship  images  and  pictures  of  Jesus.  The 

attention  of  the  church  was  directed  a  wav  from 

•/ 

Jesus  after  the  flesh  to  Jesus  glorified.*  The 
adoration  of  the  crucifix  is  the  mark  of  her 
degeneracy  and  shame. 

But  it  is  not  alone  among  idolaters,  pagan,  and 
Christian,  that  this  true  idea  of  God  has  been  lost. 
Among  those  to  whom  a  purer  faith  has  long  been 
preached,  even  within  the  precincts  of  the  church, 
this  same  degrading  tendency  is  painfully  mani¬ 
fest.  Multitudes  who  call  themselves  Christians 
find  their  highest  idea  of  God  in  the  forms  and 
forces  of  this  present  natural  system,  and  in  hu¬ 
manity  as  now  constituted,  although  they  may  not 


*  2  Cor.  v.  16. 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


45 


employ  images  to  represent  the  idea  to  their  minds. 
This  present  evil  world  they  regard  as  the  plat¬ 
form  on  which  His  promised  kingdom  is  to  be  set 
up.  Man  must  seek  and  find  regeneration  in  his 
advancing  knowledge  and  power  over  nature  and 
in  his  own  self-culture.  The  end  of  all  this  is 
the  natural  man  crowning  himself  as  God’s  image 
in  this  temple  of  nature.  If  there  is  any  knowl¬ 
edge  of  Christ — and  there  is  much  pretence  of  it 
*  — it  is  “  only  after  the  flesh/’  as  a  great  teacher 
and  reformer.  There  is  no  knowledge  of  Him, 
either  in  His  relations  to  humanity  or  to  creation, 
or  to  the  plan  of  God  that  shall  issue  in  its  de¬ 
liverance.  He  is  not  owned  as  the  Christ  of 
God.  “  This  is  that  spirit  of  antichrist,  whereof 

ye  have  heard  that  it  should  come.”  Alas  !  it 

* 

is  fast  waxing  to  its  most  presumptuous  height. 

And  now,  concerning  the  many  false  ways  in 
which  the  wisdom  of  the  world  conceives  of  God, 
we  know  that  an  idol  or  a  mere  human  idea  of 
God  is  nothing  in  the  world,  and  that  there  is 
none  other  God  but  one.  “For  though  there  be 
that  are  called  gods,  whether  in  heaven  or  in 
earth  (as  there  be  gods  many  and  lords  many),  to 
us  there  is  but  one  God  the  Father,  of.  whom  are 
all  things,  and  we  in  Him,  and  one  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  by  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  by  Him.” 
We,  who  know  the  Lord,  crave  no  other  God 
than  this.  Here  our  soul’s  deep  want  is  met. 


46  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  M AN. 


Our  sin,  the  great  barrier  between  us  and  God, 
is  put  away.  The  mysteries  of  being  and  creation 
are  explained.  Our  own  future  is  lighted  by 
Him  along  a  path  of  peace  and  blessedness,  and 
up  those  splendid  heights  along  which  He  as¬ 
cended  when  He  arose  out  of  death,  leading  cap¬ 
tivity  captive.  And  as  science  unfolds  to  us  the 
wonders  of  the  universe,  and  proves  these  wreaths 
of  shining  mist  above  us  to  be  woven  from  the 
scattered  sunbeams  of  worlds  as  countless  as  the 
leaves  of  the  forest  or  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore, 
it  is  our  joy  to  know  Him  as  now  Lord  of  all. 
The  thrones  and  dominions  and  principalities 
which  represent  the  mighty  forces  at  work  in  this 
domain  were  all  made  subject  to  Him  when  He 
rose  from  the  dead.  He  has  re-entered  this 
temple  of  the  skies  as  the  God-man,  and  resumed 
His  sovereignty  over  all  the  potent  agents  that 
traverse  these  glowing  fields  of  fire,  to  plough 
and  till  them  for  that  harvest  of  glory  to  be 
reaped  thereon  to  His  eternal  praise.  The  high¬ 
est  seat  of  power  and  dominion  in  all  this  realm 
of  wonder  is  the  body  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus. 
The  highest  effort  of  all  these  forces,  working 
from  the  dawn  of  creation,  is  to  rear  a  throne  and 
prepare  an  empire  for  that  royal  race  of  which 
He  is  the  First-Begotten  from  the  dead. 

We  do  not  think  of  Him  as  merely  enthroned 
among  shining  ranks  of  angels,  the  recipient  of 


THE  WORD  MADE  FLESH. 


47 


a  homage  that  terminates  upon  itself,  but  as  now 
constituted  head  of  that  system  of  mighty  forces 
that  surge  and  play  through  the  boundless  gulf 
of  space,  sprinkling  its  dark  depths  with  jewelled 
worlds,  tossing  their  sun-gems  along  its  shores  as 
thick  as  pebbles  on  the  ocean  strand,  rounding 
them  in  the  fiery  surf  that  beats  on  that  eternal 
shore,  polishing  them  in  their  own  diamond- 
dust,  and  fitting  them  up  in  order  and  beauty  to 
flash  forth  forever  the  glory  of  Him  who  created 
them. 

But  lest  this  view  of  our  inheritance  in  Him 
seem  too  vast  and  vague,  His  Word  also  assures 
us  that  the  administrations  of  power  and  blessing 
that  shall  finally  gladden  this  wide  waste  of 
worlds  shall  begin  here  on  the  earth.  Here, 
where  He  was  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  must  He 
also  set  up  His  throne,  until  on  the  earth  every 
tongue  confess  Him  Lord.  And  finally  the  new 
heavens  and  earth  shall  be  the  metropolis  of  that 
everlasting  kingdom,  extending  itself  in  ever- 
widening  circles  to  the  utmost  confines  of  space, 
and  causing  its  barren  solitudes  to  blossom  with 
infinite  forms  of  life  and  intelligence  and  beauty. 

“  What  shall  we  then  say  to  these  things?  If 
God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us?  He  that 
spared  not  His  own  Son,  but  delivered  Him  up 
for  us  all,  how  shall  He  not  with  Him  also 
FREELY  GIVE  US  ALL  THINGS?” 


XIX. 


WHAT  IS  MAN? 


What  is  man  ? — Ps.  viii.  4. 


No  question  can  be  proposed  to  men  of  greater 
interest  than  this.  It  meets  us  at  every  turn  in 
this  mazy  path  of  life.  It  demands  attention  at 
every  shifting  of  the  scene  in  this  wonderful 
drama  of  human  history.  It  confronts  us  at  the 
bedside  of  the  dying. 

Let  us  look,  first ,  at  some  of  the  diverse  ele¬ 
ments  that  enter  into  this  problem  ;  secondly ,  con¬ 
sider  some  of  the  ways  in  which  men  attempt  to 
solve  it  for  themselves ;  and,  thirdly ,  let  us  see  what 
the  Bible  has  to  say  about  it.  What  is  its  answer 
to  this  significant  inquiry,  “  What  is  man?” 

There  are  many  phases  in  which  this  question 
presents  itself.  We  study  man  physically  and 
find  that  he  is  only  one,  the  highest  indeed,  in  a 
series  of  animal  races  peopling  this  planet. 

And  this  creature  is  but  frail  and  perishable. 
He  dies,  as  the  brutes  die.  He  has  an  intellect, 
by  which  he  is  able  to  scale  the  stars  and  pry  into 

the  secrets  of  the  universe.  And  yet  hardly  is 
48 


WHAT  IS  MAN? 


49 


his  eye  lit  with  the  lustre  of  this  divine  intelli¬ 
gence  before  a  film  of  death  steals  over  it  and 
shrouds  it  in  ravless  darkness. 

And  this  creature,  too,  seems  to  be  born  to 
trouble,  insomuch  that  grave  philosophers,  like 
Schopenhauer,  have  recently  joined  hands  with 
the  suicides  in  affirming  that  human  life  is  not 
worth  living.  For  it  seems  to  be  only  a  series  of 
victories  crowned  with  defeats;  a  cup  of  delights 
with  the  bitterness  of  disappointment  in  the  dregs. 
As  well  not  to  be  a  bird  of  song,  we  are  told,  as 
to  be  forever  beating  your  life  away  against  the 
bars  of  the  cage  that  shuts  you  in.  Even  the 
Bible,  from  this  point  of  view,  surveying  man 
wearing  his  life  away  in  baffled  attempts  to  win  a 
glory  which  only  fades  like  a  flower,  declares, 
“  Surely  man,  at  his  best  estate,  is  altogether 
vanity.” 

And  then,  considered  morally,  what  a  strange 
creature  is  man.  He  has  capacities  of  goodness, 
of  virtue  and  tenderness,  which  assimilate  him  to 
God.  And  yet  he  has  an  irresistible  tendency  to 
evil,  which  sometimes  drags  him  down  to  the 
level  of  brutes,  and  even  of  demons. 

There  are  thus  many  sides  to  this  question, 
“  What  is  man?”  and  we  must  be  careful  not  to 
take  up  with  any  one-sided  answer.  On  the  one 
hand  there  is  much  to  impress  us  with  the  vanity, 

the  weakness,  the  selfishness  and  meanness  of  man. 
c  d  5 


50  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


On  the  other  we  are  equally  impressed  with  his 
greatness.  The  very  earth  is  made  sublime  as  the 
theatre  of  his  achievements.  We  are  amazed 
every  time  we  set  ourselves  to  think  about  the 
attainments  and  the  possibilities  of  this  strange 
being.  Man  has  a  feeble  body  which  ties  him 
down  to  earth.  And  yet  we  find  him  roaming 
among  the  stars,  weighing  them,  measuring  their 
distances,  inspecting  the  materials  that  compose 
them.  He  invents  a  telescope  and  peers  into  the 
depths  of  space  where  the  gathered  beams  of  a 
thousand  suns  have  trembled  into  darkness.  He 
constructs  a  spectroscope  and  compels  these  suns 
to  tell  him  what  substances  feed  their  mighty  fires. 

And  here,  on  the  earth,  we  see  him  founding 
empires,  building  cities,  transmuting  these  rough 
materials  of  stone  and  clay,  and  iron  and  timber, 
into  magnificent  palaces  or  quiet  homes  for  his 
abode.  We  see  him  running  iron  roads  across 
continents  and  floating  bridges  across  the  oceans. 
Nothing  is  more  suggestive  of  his  greatness  and 
daring  ambition  than  one  of  these  huge  iron  ships, 
from  which,  as  from  a  fortress,  he  bids  defiance  to 
nature  in  seeking  to  confine  him  within  narrow 
limits,  conquers  her  elements  of  wind  and  wave, 
and  compels  them  to  do  him  service.  So  also  wre 
see  him  invading  the  realm  of  nature’s  hidden 
forces,  putting  on  them  a  harness  of  steel,  com¬ 
pelling  them  to  drive  his  steamers  and  give  wings 


WHAT  IS  MAN ? 


51 


to  his  locomotives,  and  to  do  more  in  his  work¬ 
shops  than  if  every  one  of  them  were  filled  with 
such  giant  workmen  as  old  Briareus,  who  had  a 
hundred  hands  and  fifty  heads.  So  also  does  he 
overleap  all  limits  to  intercourse,  stretching  a  net¬ 
work  of  wires  from  city  to  city,  and  even  under 
the  seas,  and  compelling  the  lightning  to  flash  his 
thoughts  almost  in  a  moment  around  the  world. 
And  he  is  even  learning  to  transmit  his  voice 
audibly  over  long  distances.  If  he  cannot  have 
ubiquity  for  his  person  over  the  earth,  he  will  have 
it  at  least  for  his  thoughts,  the  expression  of  his 
soul. 

Such  are  some  of  the  phases  in  which  this  won¬ 
derful  composite  being,  which  we  call  man,  appears 
to  us.  And  these  are  some  of  the  elements  that 
enter  into  this  inquiry  and  make  it  so  startling. 

But  passing  next  to  observe  how  men  answer 
this  question  for  themselves,  we  notice  first  that 
most  men  act  as  if  they  were  children  of  nature, 
put  into  the  world  to  live  off  of  it  and  make  the 
most  out  of  it.  Hence,  as  Jesus  says,  the  things 
which  the  nations  seek  after  are,  “  What  shall 
we  eat  and  drink,  and  wherewithal  shall  we  be 
clothed  ?”  This  may  be  called  the  naturalistic 
view  of  what  man  is. 

But  many  take  a  higher  view  than  this.  They 
recognize  in  him  a  higher  element  than  that  of 
mere  animal  life.  They  believe  him  to  be  in- 


52  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


vested  with  noble  powers  and  capable  of  indefi¬ 
nite  improvement,  if  only  the  barriers  which 
obstruct  his  progress  were  removed  and  he  could 
be  allowed  to  fairly  adapt  himself  to  the  laws 
which  prevail  in  this  system  of  things.  Nature 
has  given  him  the  lordship  of  the  world,  for 
which  he  must  prepare  himself  by  proper  educa¬ 
tion,  by  physical  and  mental  culture,  by  reforms 
in  society  and  government.  This  may  be  called 
the 'rationalistic  or  the  humanitarian  view  of  man. 
It  makes  his  true  goal  of  being  to  be  perfection 
in  this  world. 

But  beyond  these  solutions  of  the  mystery  of 
man,  we  have  in  these  days  certain  attempts  of 
an  undevout  science  to  throw  light  upon  it. 
Viewing  him  as  the  centre  and  the  product  of 
this  wonderful  system  of  nature,  she  has  come  to 
the  front  in  the  endeavor  to  explain  this  mystery 
of  man;  and  yet  confessedly  she  has  not  found 
the  origin  of  life  nor  pierced  at  any  point  the 
veil  that  shuts  out  from  her  lenses  the  realm  of 
the  soul.  Some  of  her  devotees  refuse  to  believe 
that  there  are  any  wonders  of  spirit  beyond  her 
ken.  Hence  we  see  a  battle  racing  around  this 
vital  point,  “  What  is  man  ?”  between  atheistic 
materialism  and  Christianity.  Man  is  declared 
to  be  only  the  last  in  a  series  of  tentative  efforts 
by  which  nature  through  untold  ages  lias  been 
reaching  out  after  a  more  perfect  form  of  being. 


WHAT  IS  MAN? 


53 


But  even  if  this  be  true  of  his  physical  being, — 
even  if  it  could  be  demonstrated  that  his  bodily 
organism  is  lineally  descended  from  the  apes, 
which  were  themselves  evolved  from  previous 
lower  forms, — and  that  all  life  on  the  globe  is 
but  an  ascending  development  from  protoplastic 
germs,  we  are  no  nearer  getting  rid  of  the  neces¬ 
sity  for  a  creating  God,  as  the  Author  and  Ener¬ 
gizer  of  the  whole  system,  than  we  were  before. 
Nor  do  such  explanations  account  at  all  for  man’s 
spiritual  nature,  that  part  of  his  being  which 
science  cannot  inspect  nor  analyze,  and  to  which 
some  of  her  votaries  seem  strangely  blind.  Nor, 
if  proved  true,  would  they  preclude  us  from  ac¬ 
cepting  the  Bible  statement  of  the  special  creation 
of  this  man  of  a  higher  order,  the  Adam,  en¬ 
dowed  with  a  spiritual  nature  and  made  capable 
of  union  in  eternal  life  with  God.  It  is  one  of 
the  strangest  things  about  this  question  of  ages, 
“  What  is  man  ?”  that,  in  this  nineteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  amid  such  evidences  of  his  noble  origin  and 
destiny  and  conquests  over  nature,  of  which  the 
investigations  of  these  scientists  are  a  striking 
proof,  some  of  them  should  be  trying  to  prove 
that  man  is  only  a  childless  waif,  floating  on  this 
great  stream  of  life  without  a  Father  and  with- 
out  a  future,  a  mere  bubble  tossed  up  for  a  mo¬ 
ment  out  of  this  seething  caldron  of  nature’s 
forces,  and  sinking  back  again  into  its  pitiless 


54  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


bosom  as  into  a  bottomless  abyss,  without  God 
and  without  hope.  Into  such  blindness  concern¬ 
ing  this  mystery  of  man  do  men  sink  who  do  not 
begin  their  investigations  from  the  right  centre. 
Still  is  it  true  that  “  no  man  hath  seen  God  at 
any  time,”  and  that  no  man  can  find  Him  ex¬ 
cept  as  the  Son  shall  reveal  Him.  If  we  first 
come  to  Christ  and  accept  Him  as  the  revelation 
of  the  unseen  God,  then  all  these  wonders  be¬ 
come  lighted  with  a  glory  beaming  from  His  face, 
and,  instead  of  a  remote  mechanic  or  a  primal 
supreme  force  in  this  system  of  the  world,  we  get 
a  Father  who  hath  loved  us  from  the  beginning, 
and  who  is  drawing  us  by  all  the  lines  of  light 
and  power,  along  which  He  has  been  working 
from  the  dawn  of  creation,  to  that  knowledge  of 
Himself  which  is  eternal  life,  and  to  that  loving 
union  with  Himself  which  is  blessedness  supreme 
and  everlasting. 

We  turn,  then,  from  these  purblind  conceits  of 
the  worldly  and  natural  mind  concerning  man’s 
origin  and  destiny  to  consider  the  Bible  answer  to 
this  great  question,  “  What  is  man?” 

And  here  at  the  beginning  we  are  met  with 
the  surprising  announcement  that  man  was  made 
in  the  image  of  God.  St.  Paul  puts  it  in  even  a 
stronger  way,  “  The  man  is  the  image  and  glory 
of  God.”  Here  is  a  statement  which  at  once  ex¬ 
plains  the  immense  superiority  of  man  to  all  the 


WHAT  IS  MAN? 


55 


forms  of  animal  life  beneath  him.  The  man  has 
a  nature  allied  to  God  and  capable  of  fellowship 
with  Him.  We  are  not  surprised,  therefore,  that 
he  has  an  intellect  capable  of  indefinite  expansion. 
There  is  no  explanation  of  the  immense  distance 
between  the  chattering  intelligence  of  a  monkey 
and  the  vast  sweep  of  a  mind  like  that  of  Lord 
Bacon  that  can  begin  to  take  rank  with  this: 
“  Man  was  made  in  the  image  of  God.”  Nothing 
less  than  this  accounts  for  the  difference  between 
the  forest  homes  of  the  apes  and  a  splendid  city 
like  Paris;  between  a  group  of  chimpanzees  in 
the  woods  and  the  Peace  Congress  at  Berlin. 

But  we  are  told  further  that  this  creature,  made 
in  God’s  image,  was  invested  with  dominion  over 
the  lower  orders  and  over  the  earth.  We  have 
already  alluded  to  some  of  the  ways  in  which  we 
see  this  statement  verified.  We  see  man  every¬ 
where  asserting  his  ownership  and  title  to  dominion 
over  God’s  works.  He  has  not  scrupled  to  invade 
even  that  domain  which  Scripture  often  alludes 
to  as  the  invisible  side  of  creation.  This  is  the 
home  of  those  angelic  forces  which  move  on  the 
wheels  of  this  created  system  and  flash  on  view¬ 
less  wings  through  all  its  heights  and  depths.  He 
has  found  ways  of  yoking  even  these  secret  forces 
of  nature  which  we  call  by  such  names  as  heat, 
electricity,  etc.,  but  which  the  Bible  views  as  an¬ 
gelic  powers,  to  the  chariot  wheels  of  his  progress. 


56  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


And  we  cannot  deny  that  they  were  included  in 
his  original  grant  of  dominion.  These  forces 
have  been  working  for  his  benefit  from  the  time 
when  God  first  set  in  motion  this  flood  of  light 
and  fire  through  space,  and  broke  it  up  into 
shining  drops  of  worlds.  They  have  been  the 
fingers  on  His  Almighty  hand  by  which  He 
framed  and  fitted  up  the  earth  for  man’s  abode. 
These  forces  seem  from  the  first  to  have  recog¬ 
nized  man  as  their  coming  king  and  to  have 
prepared  his  way. 

And  yet  we  must  recognize  the  fact  that  they 
now  yield  him  a  reluctant  service  and  homage,  as 
if  his  right  to  rule  them  were  yet  in  dispute. 
Often  they  mock  his  attempts  to  bind  them. 
They  make  him  pay  down  dearly  in  toil  and  tears 
and  blood  for  his  success.  How  many  hundreds 
of  lives,  for  instance,  have  been  lost  in  bringing 
the  art  of  steam  locomotion  to  its  present  perfec¬ 
tion  and  safety.  Now  and  then  an  ocean  steam¬ 
ship  goes  down  with  its  precious  freight  of  hun¬ 
dreds  of  lives,  as  if  in  sardonic  mockery  of  man’s 
attempt  to  rule  them.  And  so  with  the  invisible 
gases  confined  in  gunpowder  and  other  explosives. 
They  often  burst  their  fetters  and  scatter  death 

and  destruction  around.  Or  sometimes  a  conflaora- 

© 

tion  lays  waste  a  splendid  city  like  Chicago,  or  en¬ 
wraps  a  hotel  or  a  theatre,  crowded  with  despair¬ 
ing  victims,  in  its  fiery  shroud.  All  this  teaches 


WHAT  IS  MAN? 


57 


that  man’s  dominion  over  these  forces  of  nature  is 
as  yet  temporary,  limited,  and  provisional. 

And  this  leads  us  to  notice  another  very  im¬ 
portant  feature  in  the  Bible  account  of  man.  It 
is  that  of  his  sin,  by  which  he  forfeited  both  life 
and  title  to  inheritance  in  this  system  of  God’s 
works.  Sin  came  in  to  mar  this  noble  creature 
of  His  hands,  and  to  defeat  His  gracious  purpose 
to  crown  him  king.  And  the  wages  of  sin  came 
with  it,  which  are  death.  So  that  after  all  it 
seemed  as  if  the  image  of  God,  which  He  had  set 
up  on  the  summit  of  His  works,  had  turned  out 
to  be  only  a  grinning  skeleton. 

But  not  so.  God  cannot  be  defeated  in  any  of 
His  purposes.  Known  unto  Him  are  all  His 
works  from  the  beginning  of  the  world.  Even 
man’s  sin  was  not  outside  of  His  eternal  plan. 
For  He  meant  to  recover  him  from  it,  and,  by 
means  of  the  discipline  of  conflict  with  it,  to  train 
him  for  a  far  higher  dignity  than  was  given  him 
at  first.  Hence  He  provided  a  Redeemer,  a  First- 
Born  brother  to  the  human  race,  who  was  also 
Son  of  God,  who  should  have  the  first-born’s 
right  to  redeem  our  lives  and  our  inheritance. 
Th  is  He  did  by  the  one  perfect  sacrifice  of  Him¬ 
self.  And  then  God  raised  Him  from  the  dead 
to  that  full  dignity  of  man’s  estate  which  He  had 
contemplated  from  the  beginning,  crowning  Him 
as  His  perfected  Image  over  the  whole  system  of 


58  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


His  works,  and  putting  all  things  on  earth  and 
in  heaven  beneath  His  feet. 

And  this  leads  to  the  important  thought  that 
the  question  what  man  is,  and  what  does  his 
Maker  mean  to  do  with  him,  is  answered  only  as 
it  is  viewed  in  the  light  of  this  crowning  article 
of  the  Christian  faith,  the  resurrection  of  the 
Christ  from  the  dead.  We  discover  here  that 
man,  as  at  first  formed,  was  only  a  clay  model  of 
the  splendid  figure  the  Divine  Artist  meant  to 
produce  as  the  express  Image  of  His  person. 
The  complete,  Ideal  Man  is  the  risen  Man.  And 
we  reach  that  goal  only  as  we  die  out  of  our  old 
manhood  through  union  with  Christ  and  are  made 
new  creatures  in  Him.  God’s  thought  concerning 
us,  from  the  beginning,  was  to  bring  us  to  the 
same  rank  of  being,  through  the  same  gateway  of 
death  and  resurrection. 

But  every  son  whom  He  reeeiveth  He  scourgeth. 
Such  high  honor  is  only  won  through  tribulation. 
Hence  we  see  why  the  present  existence  of  man 
is  so  limited  and  frail  and  why  he  now  holds  so 
weak  a  sceptre.  He  is  now  under  discipline, 
wrestling  with  evil  and  with  trouble,  a  candidate 
for  the  high  honors  of  immortal  manhood.  Be¬ 
fore  he  can  wear  such  a  crown  and  administer 
such  an  estate,  he  must  be  trained  by  conflict. 
He  must  wrestle  with  the  principalities  and  powers 
who  are  hereafter  to  be  his  subjects,  and  who 


WIT  A  T  IS  MAN? 


59 


sometimes  come  down  upon  him  in  great  wrath, 
because  they  know  their  time  is  short.  This 
present  strange  and  checkered  experience,  this 
conflict  with  evil,  these  holocausts  of  human  lives 
by  the  fierce  powers  of  nature,  this  bondage  to 
death,  are  all  explained  when  we  know  that  this 
is  not  the  final  stage  of  man’s  existence,  and  that 
he  is  only  passing  along,  by  this  way  of  conflict 
and  the  cross,  the  same  path  that  Jesus  trod,  to 
the  same  splendid  heights  of  immortality  and  do¬ 
minion.  For  it  is  written  that  He  is  but  the 
First-Born  among  many  brethren,  and  that  our 
Father  hath  predestinated  us  also  to  be  conformed 
to  the  image  of  His  Son. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  Mighty  Builder  of  this 
framework  of  the  skies  hath  now  enshrined  with¬ 
in  it  an  Image  of  Himself,  and  that  image  is  a 
risen  Man. 

We  see,  also,  that  man,  receiving  Christ,  re¬ 
ceives  power  through  Him  to  become,  not  figura¬ 
tively,  but  really,  a  Son  of  God,  and,  through 
resurrection,  rises  to  the  full  rank  and  heritage  of 
a  Son.  A  son  has  his  father’s  nature.  So,  in 
Christ,  we  are  made  partakers  of  the  divine  na¬ 
ture.  A  son  is  loved  by  the  father  as  he  loves 
himself.  So  God  has  loved  us  with  a  love  which 
passeth  knowledge  and  filletli  all  His  fulness.  A 
son  is  tutored  and  trained  by  his  father  to  worthily 
fill  the  station  in  life  for  which  he  is  designed. 


60  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 

So  God  is  now  training  us  by  all  this  wondrous 
discipline  of  life  for  our  high  station.  A  son  is 
heir  to  his  father’s  estate.  So  we  are  heirs  of  God 
and  joint  heirs  with  Christ.  And  when  we  speak 
of  our  Father’s  estate  we  are  to  take  no  narrow 
view  of  what  that  means.  We  have  already  seen 
that  our  brother-man,  Christ  Jesus,  is  on  the 
throne  of  the  universe.  Its  shining  worlds  are 
but  the  pavement  beneath  His  royal  feet.  And 
all  the  forces  that  surge  and  play  across  its  bound¬ 
less  fields  are  bound  to  His  throne  and  do  His 
pleasure.  We  cannot  get  away  in  the  least  from 
this  grand  fact  concerning  manhood  and  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  Father  in  its  creation  that  a  man,  as 
the  express  Image  of  Himself,  is  now  seated  on 
His  throne  and  made  the  Lord  of  all  these  wide 
dominions.  Nor  can  we  get  rid  of  the  fact  that 
He  is  seated  there  as  Head  over  all  things  to  the 
church  which  is  His  body,  and  that  we  are  to 
reign  with  Him.  And  therefore  we  cannot  limit 
our  answer  to  this  question  concerning  man’s 
future  by  any  narrow  bounds  of  earth.  This 
earth  is  now  his  appointed  possession.  And  the 
earth,  we  are  told,  is  to  be  liberated  and  glorified 
with  him.  It  will  doubtless  be  the  first  theatre 
upon  which  God  will  display  His  gracious  designs 
concerning  him.  But  the  earth  is  only  a  part  of 
a  vast  system  of  creation,  all  of  which  is  one 
system  and  one  estate.  The  same  laws  and  forces 


WHAT  IS  MAN? 


-61 


prevail  here  as  in  those  distant  realms  through 
which  Orion  leads  his  bands,  and  all  along  those 
shores  where  suns  lie  scattered  like  pebbles  on  the 
ocean  strand.  These  are  unexplored  and  perhaps 
uninhabited  regions  of  God’s  great  empire,  parts 
of  our  Father’s  estate.  And  therefore  we  are 
not  to  limit  His  love  toward  us,  nor  fathom  its 
boundless  depths  by  any  such  short  line  of  meas¬ 
urement  as  is  the  assumption  that  man  is  but  a 
feeble  creature  of  the  earth,  whose  destiny  is 
linked  in  with  that  of  the  earth  alone. 

For  man,  in  Christ,  is  now  made  partaker  in 
the  eternal  life  of  God.  This  life  must  carry 
with  it  everywhere  the  prerogatives  of  sovereignty. 
Nothing  but  a  boundless  creation  can  be  a  suitable 
theatre  for  a  creature  raised  to  the  rank  of  God’s 
Son,  and  endowed  with  His  life. 

We  have  reached,  then,  our  final  answer  to  this 
question  of  ages,  and  in  the  light  of  it  the  mys¬ 
tery  of  creation  stands  revealed.  Man  is  that 
Image  of  God  for  whose  production  the  quarry 
of  the  universe  has  been  furnished,  and  upon 
which  its  angelic  powers  have  been  long  at  work  ; 
an  image,  first  in  clay  and  sadly  marred  by  sin, 
but  now  restored  in  Jesus  in  lines  of  beauty  and 
strength  beyond  the  touch  of  time  or  taint  of 
death.  “  Ecce  Homo  /”  said  Pilate  (Behold  the 
Man  !).  He  spoke  better  than  he  knew.  For 

even  then,  with  visage  marred  and  flesh  striped 

6 


62  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


with  thongs,  He  was  the  One  Perfect  Man.  But 
the  true  goal  of  manhood,  the  way  to  which  He 
came  to  carve  out  for  us,  could  only  be  reached 
through  His  death  and  resurrection.  And  after 
He  had  passed  along  that  way  and  taken  His  seat 
on  high,  then  indeed  the  true  Ecce  Homo  was 
heard  through  all  the  temple  of  the  skies.  The 
model  of  a  Perfect  Man  had  at  last  been  reached. 
The  completed  and  indestructible  Image  of  God 
was  at  last  realized.  The  fruit,  for  which  these 
scarred  fields  of  creation  had  long  been  tilled,  had 
at  last  been  gathered  in,  the  first  fruits  of  a  com¬ 
ing  harvest.  The  Man,  for  whose  palace  this 
masonry  of  suns  and  stars  had  been  reared,  had 
now  appeared,  the  Representative  of  their  Maker, 
and  the  titled  Heir  and  Sovereign  of  all  His 
realms. 

All  this  we  are  ready  to  confess  concerning 
Him ;  but  we  are  slow  of  heart  to  believe  what 
Scripture  tells  us,  that  He  is  there  as  our  First- 
Born  brother,  that  He  is  bringing  us  also  to  His 
glory.  Man  the  destined  lord  of  the  universe ! 
The  thought  seems  so  immense  we  cannot  take  it 
in.  It  seems  so  arrogant  we  dare  not  believe  it. 
And  yet,  strangely  enough,  even  science,  in  these 
last  days,  begins  to  accord  with  this  Scripture 
teaching.  She  affirms  that  only  on  the  earth,  of 
all  the  planets  of  the  solar  system,  has  life  reached 
so  high  a  state  of  development  as  in  man.  Her 


WHAT  IS  MAN? 


63 


sister  planets  seem  to  be  yet  far  down  on  the  scale 
of  cosmical  order  and  preparation.  While  the 
fiery  wildernesses  of  worlds  around  us,  the  fixed 
stars,  cannot  themselves  be  the  abode  of  any  such 
creature,  although  it  would,  of  course,  be  pre¬ 
sumption  to  affirm  this  of  all  the  worlds  that  re¬ 
volve  around  them.  But  so  far  as  science  can 
obse7've,  she  has  nothing  to  object  to,  but  rather 
confirms  this  Scripture  view,  that  man,  made  in 
God’s  image,  is  the  noblest  creature  that  has  blos¬ 
somed  out  on  these  wide  fields  and  the  destined 
lord  of  them  all. 

W  e  see,  then,  in  the  light  of  this  Scripture 
teaching,  the  immense  significance  of  the  offer  of 
eternal  life,  through  Jesus,  to  men.  It  is  an 
offer  to  bring  them  to  the  true  goal  of  their  man¬ 
hood,  and  to  make  them  joint  heirs  with  Him 
whom  the  Father  “  hath  appointed  heir  of  all 
things.”  And  we  discover  a  new  meaning  in  His 
oft-repeated  warnings  against  the  loss  of  this 
eternal  life  and  dignity.  Men  may  fail  to  reach 
this  high  goal  of  their  being.  They  may  refuse 
Christ,  and  so  adjudge  themselves  unworthy  of 
it.  Such  cannot  hope  to  come  to  man’s  estate, 
nor  to  sit  down  with  Christ  on  His  throne. 

Finally,  Christians  who  are  called  by  God  to 
this  fellowship  with  His  Son  may  see  a  new 
meaning  in  their  high  calling.  What  boundless 
possibilities  are  contained  in  it!  Can  we  wonder 


64  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 

that  Paul  was  ever  praying  for  his  converts  that 
God  would  enlighten  them  concerning  the  hope 
of  their  calling  and  the  riches  of  the  glory  of 
their  inheritance,  and  enable  them  to  know  some¬ 
thing  of  this  love  of  Christ,  which  is  an  ocean 
without  bottom  or  shore,  and  which  passeth 
knowledge,  because  “it  filleth  all  the  fulness  of 
God”  ? 


I’V. 


ANGELS,  AUTHORITIES,  AND  POWERS. 

Who  is  gone  into  heaven ,  and  is  on  the  right  hand  of 
God ;  angels ,  authorities ,  and 'powers  being  made  subject  unto 
Him. — 1  Peter  iii.  22. 

If  a  man  “is  gone  into  heaven,”  then  the 
question  about  a  future  life  for  man  is  set  at  rest. 
The  whole  structure  of  Christianity  rests  on  this 
statement  that  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  our  fellow- 
man  as  well  as  God’s  fellow,  has  now  ascended 
to  heaven.  A  man,  then,  has  safely  passed  the 
ordeal  of  death,  and  is  now  risen  on  the  other 
side  of  it. 

This  question  of  a  future  life  for  man,  which 
is  thus  so  firmly  settled  in  the  Bible,  has  always 
been  a  mooted  one  in  the  ranks  of  unbelief,  and 
grave  doubts  about  it  are  entertained  even  in  the 
circles  of  high  and  serious  thought. 

One  reason  of  these  prevalent  doubts  is  found 
in  the  fact  that  modern  thought  has  drifted  so 
much  away  from  the  old  phraseology  in  which 
the  truths  concerning  the  future  life  have  been 
set  forth.  The  world,  especially  under  the  teach¬ 
ings  of  science,  has  outgrown  the  language  of  a 

6*  65 


e 


66  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


more  childish  age,  and  is  therefore  disposed  to 
reject  the  thing  itself,  because  the  dress  of  words 
in  which  it  is  conveyed  is  not  in  the  fashion  of 
the  times.  It  is  assumed,  for  example,  that  the 
existence  of  such  things  as  u  angels,  authorities, 
and  powers”  is  something  which  lies  altogether 
beyond  the  range  of  our  investigation,  and  which, 
therefore,  belongs  to  the  realm  of  fancy  rather 
than  of  fact. 

And  yet  we  find  abundant  proof  of  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  some  unseen  forces,  which  we  can  investi- 
tigate  and  handle,  and  to  which  science  gives 
names,  such,  for  example,  as  “ gravitation.”  Now 
what  if  it  should  turn  out  that  these  agents  of 
science  are  the  same  as  those  of  Scripture? — 
that,  instead  of  being  blind  forces  or  mere  prop¬ 
erties  of  matter,  they  are  either  identical  with 
or  are  the  manifestation  of  spiritual  intelligent 
forces?*  What  if  there  be  not  only  poetic  beauty 


*  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  latest  broodings  of  science 
over  the  mystery  of  the  relation  between  matter  and  spirit 
look  toward  this  result, — the  investiture  of  material  forces 
with  intelligence.  The  recent  attempts  to  materialize 
spirit  are  likely  to  end  rather  in  the  spiritualization  of 
matter.  A  late  writer  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  Magazine 
upon  the  “  Fallacy  of  Materialism”  asserts  that  the  theory 
that  “  the  universe  consists  entirely  of  mind  stuff,”  and  that 
“mental  and  physical  phenomena,  although  apparently 
diverse,  are  really  identical,”  is  the  one  toward  which  all 
the  greatest  minds  that  have  studied  this  question  in  the 


ANGELS,  AUTHORITIES,  AND  POWERS.  67 


but  literal  description  in  such  passages  as  Heb.  i. 
7,  which  th6  new  version  renders,  “  Who  maketh 
the  winds  His  angels.  His  ministers  a  flame  of 
fire”  ? 

Thus  does  even  sceptical  science  recognize  the 
existence  of  a  realm  of  invisible  powers.  These 
forces  are  mighty  and  pervasive,  everywhere  mov¬ 
ing  on  the  wheels  of  this  complicated  system  of 
nature,  filling  the  earth  and  the  vast  heavenly 
spaces  with  their  activities,  flashing  on  viewless 
wings  through  these  immense  regions,  bridging 
the  great  chasms  of  space,  and  stretching  their 
arms  of  power  across  the  circles  around  which 
sweep  the  unnumbered  worlds.  The  invisible 
side  of  creation  is  as  real  even  to  the  eyes  of 
science  as  the  visible. 

Now  what  does  Christianity  affirm  ?  It  affirms 
that  this  hidden  realm  of  forces,  forces  to  which 
man  is  now  subject,  is  a  realm  of  spiritual  forces, 
and  that  the  region  of  their  activity  is  another 
region  of  life  for  man.  It  affirms  that  a  man  has 
already  passed  behind  the  veil  into  this  higher 
realm  of  life.  It  declares  that,  in  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus,  a  man  was  transfigured  into  that  form 


right  way  are  tending.  This  is  certainly  an  approxima¬ 
tion  to  the  theory  concerning  angelic  powers  which  runs 
through  these  pages,  and  which  the  Bible  favors  if  it  does 
not  positively  teach,  that  all  natural  forces  are  “angels,” 
living  intelligent  powers. 


68  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


of  being  which  is  suited  to  this  unseen  world,  yea, 
that  in  rising  into  that  realm  he  passed  out  of  that 
condition  of  subjection  to  these  cosmic  forces,  in 
which  man  was  first  created,  into  a  condition  of 
supremacy  over  them  all.  Manhood,  which  in 
this  world  is  under  tutelage  and  bondage  to  this 
system  of  forces,  has,  in  Christ,  been  glorified  to 
sovereignty  over  them.  And  this  is  the  meaning 
of  this  passage  when  it  asserts  that  Jesus  Christ 
“  is  gone  into  heaven,  and  is  on  the  right  hand  of 
God,  angels  and  authorities  and  powers  being 
made  subject  unto  Him.” 

We  have  been  accustomed  to  look  at  such  teach¬ 
ings  of  Scripture  too  much  with  the  childish  eyes 
of  a  former  age.  Imagination  has  peopled  this 
invisible  realm  with  fanciful  forms  and  depicted 
heaven  as  a  far-off  home  of  rest,  where  shining 
ranks  of  angels  await  the  ransomed  spirit  and  in¬ 
troduce  it  to  scenes  and  occupations  which  have 
no  resemblance  to  or  connection  with  the  things 
in  which  we  are  now  interested. 

Hat  her  should  we  look  at  heaven  as  near  us  and 
all  around  us.  And  the  angels  of  that  unseen 
world  we  should  recognize  in  the  multitudinous 
forces  of  nature  which  are  operating  in  all  the 
wondrous  forms  of  life  and  motion  with  which 
God’s  works  are  stored.  And  our  Saviour,  Jesus 
Christ,  we  should  now  think  of  as  enthroned  above 
all  these  forces,  carrying  on  His  redeeming  work 


ANGELS,  AUTHORITIES,  AND  POWERS.  69 


through  their  agency,  compelling  them  to  execute 
His  purposes  of  grace  and  of  correction,  and  so 
preparing  us,  who  have  learned  to  call  Him  Lord, 
to  take  part  with  Him  in  that  universal  sovereignty 
by  which  He  is  subjecting  all  things  in  heaven 
and  on  earth  to  the  will  of  God,  that  God  may  be 
all  in  all.  To  this  end  He,  as  our  First-Born 
brother,  first-born  from  the  dead,  has  now  entered 
this  temple  of  the  skies.  Humanity  in  Him  was 
cleansed  and  purified  and  transformed  into  the  life 
and  light  of  that  unseen  realm.  And  when  He 
entered  it  all  its  potent  forces  recognized  Him  as 
its  Lord.  And  we  who  believe  in  Him  shall  be 
lifted  by  His  mighty  power  into  the  same  eternal 
life  and  glory. 

There  is,  then,  a  future  life  for  man,  a  splendid 
boundless  career.  Every  day,  and  all  the  time, 
we  stand  upon  the  boundaries  and  brush  the  out¬ 
skirts  of  that  unseen  world.  Its  shining  hosts  go 
trooping  by  us  on  the  wings  of  the  morning. 
They  make  the  clouds  their  chariots.  Their  blue 
eyes  look  down  upon  us  from  the  sky.  All  nature 
is  alive  with  their  ministries.  The  purblind  eye 
of  science  looks  upon  these  forces  as  unintelligent 
hidden  properties  of  matter.  Oh,  blind  science! 
These  forces  are  God’s  angels.  They  are  minis¬ 
ters  of  His  that  do  His  pleasure.  They  are  the 
intelligent  eyes  in  the  mighty  wheels  that  move 
on  the  mechanism  of  the  universe.  And  the 


70  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN, 


Spirit  in  the  wheels  is  the  Spirit  of  the  ascended 
Christ,  who  is  gone  into  heaven,  angels  and  au¬ 
thorities  and  powers  being  made  subject  unto 
Him,  and  being  sent  forth  by  Him  as  ministering 
spirits  unto  them  who  are  heirs  of  salvation. 
And  He  is  directing  all  this  wondrous  system 
toward  that  consummation  of  the  future  when 
He  shall  be  manifested  as  its  Lord,  and  when,  the 
powers  of  evil  being  bound,  heaven,  the  unseen 
world,  shall  be  opened,  and  golden  ladders  of 
communication  shall  be  set  up  between  earth  and 
heaven,  and  these  two  now  sundered  departments 
of  God’s  kingdom  shall  be  united,  and  brought 
into  happy  concord,  and  when  His  saints  shall  rise 
and  reign  with  Him  in  that  holy  city  which  shall 
come  down  out  of  the  opened  heavens  and  hang 
out  its  banners  of  light  and  splendor  over  this 
long  cursed  earth,  and  when  the  tabernacle  of 
God  shall  be  with  men  and  He  will  dwell  with 
them  and  they  shall  be  His  people,  and  wipe 
away  all  tears  from  their  eyes,  and  there  shall  be 
no  more  death,  neither  sorrow  nor  crying,  nor  any 
more  pain,  for  the  former  things  are  passed  away. 


■v. 

THINGS  VISIBLE  AND  INVISIBLE. 

For  by  Him  were  all  things  created  that  are  in  heaven 
and  that  are  in  earth ,  visible  and  invisible ,  whether  they  be 
thrones  or  dominions  or  'principalities  or  powers ;  all 
things  were  created  by  Him  and  for  Him. — Colossians  i. 
16. 


We  are  here  taught  that  creation  has  two  sides, 
the  visible  and  the  invisible.  The  tilings  we  see 
are  by  no  means  the  only  real  things  in  this  created 
system.  The  invisible,  indeed,  occupies  the  first 
place  in  the  thought  of  this  passage.  For  among 
created  things  these  are  the  things  it  specifies : 
“  thrones,  dominions,  principalities,  powers.7’  Not 
seas,  clouds,  mountains,  or  stars  are  spoken  of,  nor 
any  sensible  objects,  but  certain  hidden  powers 
that  pervade  and  dominate  the  universe. 

In  all  ages  men  have  believed  in  this  reverse 
side  of  creation.  The  old  mythologies  were  based 
upon  this  idea  of  nature  as  the  home  and  the 
vehicle  of  hidden  supernal  powers.  The  light¬ 
ning  was  the  arrow  of  Jupiter,  king  of  gods  and 
men;  the  thunder,  his  voice.  In  the  Bible  these 
unseen  powers  are  called  “  angels.” 

This  is  not  only  the  frequent  designation  found 

71 


72  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN . 


in  the  Psalms  and  the  other  poetic  books.*  The 
angelic  agency  by  which  the  stone  was  rolled  away 
from  the  door  of  the  sepulchre  was  an  earthquake. 
(Matt,  xxviii.  2.f) 

The  science  of  our  day  concerns  itself  chiefly 
with  the  investigation  of  “  things  invisible.”  To 
these  it  gives  names  such  as  “  light,”  “  heat,” 
“  attraction,”  etc.,  assuming  that  these  forces  are 
not  vital ;  that  they  do  not  belong  to  the  realm  of 
life  and  intelligence;  whereas  Scripture  contem¬ 
plates  them  as  living,  spiritual  powers, — “ thrones, 
dominions,  principalities,  powers.”  Even  Chris¬ 
tians  are  accustomed  to  think  of  these  powers  as 
having  no  special  relation  to  this  system  of  creation. 

The  passage  we*  have  quoted  asserts  that  they 
constitute  the  other  side  of  it.  And  it  is  implied 
that  this  side  is  the  most  important.  Even 
science  is  ready  to  admit  this  of  these  forces  as 
she  conceives  of  them.J  She  has  revealed  to  us 


*  Ps.  xviii.  10  ;  civ.  3. 

f  Comp,  also  Acts  vii.  53,  with  Ex.  xix.  8,  and  Ps.  Ixviii. 
17. 

J  It  is  only  within  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years  that 
there  has  gradually  dawned  upon  the  minds  of  scientific 
men  the  conviction  that  there  is  something  besides  matter 
or  stuff  in  the  physical  universe,  which  has  at  least  as 
much  claim  as  matter  to  recognition  as  an  objective  reality, 
though  of  course  far  less  directly  obvious  to  our  senses  as 
such  lind  therefore  much  later  in  being  detected. — “  Un¬ 
seen  Universe,”  p.  70. 


THINGS  VISIBLE  AND  INVISIBLE. 


73 


that  the  things  we  see  and  touch  are  not  the  only 
real  or  important  things  in  the  universe,  but  that, 
concealed  by  them,  there  are  other  things  de¬ 
manding  our  attention  of  surprising  interest. 

Indeed,  now  and  then,  she  seems  to  approxi¬ 
mate  the  truth  concerning  these  powers,  as  set 
forth  in  Scripture.* 

Let  us  pass  to  observe  some  of  the  ways  in 
which  science  conducts  us  behind  the  region  of 
thing's  visible  into  that  of  things  invisible.  A 
transition  into  this  realm  is  first  made  for  us  by 
the  microscope.  It  reveals  to  us  arrangements  of 
matter  most  curious  and  diversified.  Below  the 
surface  of  things  seen  there  are  highly- organized 
forms  of  creature  life.  And  these  creatures  are 
built  up  of  cells,  which  are  a  sort  of  primary 
molecules  of  animate  structure.  But  these  cells 
are  themselves  structures,  and  separated  in  size  by 
ocean-widths  from  the  material  atoms  which  com- 


*  A  late  writer  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  Magazine 
says,  “  I  think  it  may  help  us  to  conceive  of  mincl  as  ex¬ 
isting  altogether  apart  from  matter  if  we  observe  that  ma¬ 
terial  powers  and  influences  appear  to  be  more  influential 
as  they  become  more  subtle  and  more  nearly  immaterial. 
We  may  conceive,  in  fact,  of  a  hierarchy  of  powers,  in 
which  the  lowest  grade  contains  the  commonest  push-and- 
pull  forces  of  ordinary  human  experience;  higher  grades 
may  contain  the  invisible  forces  of  nature;  and  the  highest 
of  all  may  contain  pure  mind  unmixed  with  baser  matter 
altogether.” 


D 


7 


74  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


pose  them.  No  microscope  has  begun  to  see  the 
atoms  which  we  are  obliged  to  assume  as  the  pri¬ 
mary  units  of  matter.  We  think  we  see  material 
things,  but  in  the  structure  of  everything  we  look 
upon  and  handle  there  are  unfathomed  depths 
below  our  power  to  see,  and  which  must  be  ex¬ 
plored  if  we  are  to  understand  the  real  nature  of 
the  substance.  Even  chemical  analysis  only  takes 
us  a  few  steps  into  this  region.  When  we  say,  for 
example,  that  water  is  composed  of  so  many  parts 
of  oxygen  and  so  many  of  hydrogen,  we  have  got 
beyond  the  realm  of  sight  indeed,  into  the  region 
of  invisible  gases,  but  of  the  atomic  structure  of 
these  gases  and  of  the  forces  operating  among 
these  atoms  we  know  almost  nothing. 

And  this  suggests  that  below  the  region  which 
the  microscope  can  penetrate  there  is  this  region  of 
invisible  vapors  or  gases.  All  the  substances  we 
see,  if  made  hot  enough,  may  be  made  to  assume 
this  form.  All  the  matter  of  the  universe,  it  is 
supposed,  was  once  in  the  gaseous  form.  And  a 
large  proportion  of  it  still  retains  this  form.  The 
earth  is  enveloped  by  a  gaseous  ocean  some  forty 
miles  deep, — the  atmosphere,  a  thing  most  real 
and  yet  invisible. 

But  there  is  a  still  more  remote  region  of  sub¬ 
stances  or  forces  among  u  things  invisible.”  Still 
less  obvious  to  our  senses  than  the  gases  are  the 
great  natural  forces.  No  man  ever  saw  one  of 


THINGS  VISIBLE  AND  INVISIBLE. 


75 


these  agents.  We  see  only  their  effects.  I  do 
not  see  the  light  of  the  sun.  I  only  see  the  things 
the  light  makes  manifest.  All  nature  is  pervaded 
by  these  subtle,  mighty  unseen  forces.  They 
bridge  over  the  immeasurable  chasms  of  space. 
They  move  on  worlds  and  systems  of  worlds  in 
their  courses.  They  carry  on  all  the  operations 
of  nature.  And  they  have  their  home,  as  science 
assumes,  in  an  invisible  ether,  a  vast  fathomless 
ocean,  in  whose  bosom  all  things  float,  and  which 
fills  all  the  heights  and  depths  of  boundless  space. 
Can  we  wonder  that  this  passage  seems  to  contem¬ 
plate  “  things  invisible”  as  the  most  important 
part  of  this  system  of  creation  ? 

We  observe  also  that  the  farther  we  penetrate 
into  this  invisible  region  the  nearer  do  we  come 
to  the  great  active  forces  which  energize  and  vital¬ 
ize  this  system.  We  have  already  said  that,  while 
science  views  these  potencies  as  dumb,  Scripture 
invests  them  with  life  and  intelligence,  and  speaks 
of  them  as  “  angels,  principalities,  and  powers.” 
And  so  it  becomes  neither  difficult  nor  irrational 
for  us  to  take  one  step  farther  into  this  invisible 
realm.  Scripture  bids  us  to  take  that  step  and  to 
recognize  spirit  as  the  moving  cause  and  the  life 
of  this  whole  system.  Science  conducts  us  to  the 
borders  of  this  spirit  realm,  and  there  she  pauses 
and  hesitates,  unable  to  decide  whether  or  not  there 
is  anything  across  the  boundary.  Some  of  her 


76  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


magnates  declare  that  we  need  go  no  farther  than 
tli-e  forces  of  which  we  have  spoken,  and  of  which 
she  can  tako  some  cognizance,  to  account  for  the 
origin  and  growth  of  all  things.  They  stand 
baffled  on  this  border  line  between  matter  and 
spirit,  and  because  they  cannot  cross  it,  they  be¬ 
come  Sadducees  and  deny  that  there  is  either 
angel  or  spirit  or  a  future  life  for  man.  Into  this 
pitfall  they  stumble,  because  of  their  false  and 
fatal  assumption  that  life  and  intelligence  pertain 
only  to  organized  forms,  such  as  we  can  see,  and 
that  the  forces  under  which  these  forms  originate 
and  develop  are  themselves  non-living.  But  this 
word  of  the  Spirit,  through  Paul,  illuminates 
with  its  flash  this  hidden  realm,  and  reveals 
these  forces  as  either  identical  with  or  the  uni¬ 
form  manifestations  of  living  powers.  And  so  we 
are  prepared  for  the  idea  of  the  Infinite,  Omni¬ 
present  Spirit,  the  substratum,  the  cause,  and  the 
vital  energy  of  all  things.  Thus  does  Scripture 
lead  us  with  firm  tread  beyond  the  region  of 
things  visible  and  even  invisible  into  the  presence 
of  God,  the  Eternal  Spirit,  Source  of  .  all  life, 
Creator  of  all  things,  Former  of  our  bodies  and 
Father  of  our  spirits,  in  whom  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being.  No  man  hath  seen  Him  at 
any  time.  No  man  hath  seen  the  great  forces 
that  are  subject  to  Him  in  this  domain,  such  as 
gravitation  and  heat.  And  yet  we  are  certain 


THINGS  VISIBLE  AND  INVISIBLE. 


77 


of  their  existence  by  what  we  witness  of  their 
effects. 

Shall  we  therefore  doubt  the  existence  of  God 
because  we  do  not  see  Him?  Or  shall  we  deny 
the  existence  of  an  invisible  spiritual  world  be¬ 
cause  it  does  not  make  itself  manifest  to  our 
senses?  Once  admit  the  truth  that  all  nature,  in¬ 
stead  of  being  ruled  by  blind  forces,  is  pervaded 
by  powers  instinct  with  life  and  intelligence,  and 
a  whole  realm  of  spirit  is  disclosed  to  us,  one 
which  touches  and  enfolds  us  more  closely  than 
does  the  realm  of  things  visible. 

And  this  realm  of  invisible  powers  must  have 
its  Lord  of  hosts,  One  God  over  all,  blessed  for¬ 
ever  ;  and  these  hosts  His  ministers  that  do  His 
pleasure. 

But  we  pass  on  to  remark  that  from  the  begin¬ 
ning;  of  all  things  there  has  been  a  tendency  in 
the  invisible  to  become  visible  and  manifest. 

Matter,  at  first  existent  in  gaseous  invisible 
forms,  has  always  been  tending  toward  the  solid 
and  visible.  The  invisible  powers,  of  which  we 
have  been  speaking,  have,  for  their  vesture,  these 
material  forms.  Nature  is  often  spoken  of  as 
“  the  garment  of  God.”  It  would  be  more  true 
to'regard  it  as  the  visible  vesture  of  u  things  in¬ 
visible.”  These  creature  forms  are  the  eidola ,  the 
images  of  the  powers  of  nature,  and  not  of  Him 

who  is  God  over  all.  Hence  Scripture  everywhere 

7* 


78  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


denounces  the  worship  of  God  through  natural 
objects.  It  calls  it  demon  worship.  (1  Cor.  x. 
20.)  There  is  a  descending  hierarchy  of  these 
powers  as  well  as  an  ascending.  And  even  the 
highest  are  unworthy  representatives  of  the  Most 
High  God.  They  veil  their  faces  before  Him, 
and  He  charges  them  with  folly.  (Job  iv.  18; 
xv.  15.)  This  first  chapter  to  the  Colossians, 
however,  teaches  that  even  the  uncreated  God  has 
His  image,  and  that  He  has  made  Himself  mani¬ 
fest  in  Jesus  Christ,  who,  especially  as  risen  from 
the  dead,  is  now  the  perfected  “  Image  of  the 
invisible  God.”  The  unseen  God  Himself  was 
thus  to  become  visible  in  the  form  of  One  who, 
as  the  Archetype  of  all  things,  toward  the  pattern 
of  which  all  things  were  made,  and  in  whom  they 
now  consist  or  hold  together,  was  to  be  crowned 
on  the  summit  of  this  created  system,  the  true 
Son  and  Heir  of  God  and  Lord  of  all.  To  this 
pinnacle  of  glory  He  was  raised,  as  a  man,  out 
of  death.  And  as  the  glorified  man  He  is  now 
the  Image  of  God. 

But  He  is  now  withdrawn  from  sight.  The 
heavens  have  received  Him.  The  clouds  conceal 
Him.  But  the  whole  stress  and  drift  of  New 
Testament  prophecy  is  toward  His  “  manifesta¬ 
tion.”  This  Hidden  One  is  to  “  appear.”  Every 
eye  shall  see  Him. 

Thus  not  only  all  “  things  invisible,”  but  even 


THINGS  VISIBLE  AND  INVISIBLE. 


79 


the  unseen  God  and  the  hidden  Christ  tend  toward 
“  manifestation.” 

And  now  observe  that  “  His  appearing”  is 
always  looked  forward  to  in  the  New  Testament 
as  the  opening  up  to  man  of  the  realm  of  things 
invisible.  It  is  to  be  the  rift  in  the  cloud  land 
of  things  seen  which  shall  let  through  the  glories 
of  things  unseen.  We  read  that  He  shall  be  re¬ 
vealed  from  heaven  with  His  mighty  angels. 
When  He  comes  in  His  glory  all  the  holy  angels 
come  with  Him.  All  this  implies  that  the  heav¬ 
ens,  the  invisible  world,  shall  be  opened.  It  is 
for  the  purposes  of  man’s  trial  and  training  that 
this  unseen  world  is  now  veiled  from  him.  He 
is  now  in  darkness  in  respect  to  the  true  knowl¬ 
edge  of  God,  and  wanders  far  away  from  Him. 

But,  we  read,  when  things  invisible  shall  be 
illumined  by  the  light  of  Christ’s  parousia,  u  the 
face  of  the  covering  which  is  cast  over  all  people 
and  the  veil  that  is  spread  over  all  nations”  shall 
be  taken  away,  and  they  shall  say  in  that  day, 
“ Lo!  this  is  our  God;  we  have  waited  for  Him  ; 
we  will  be  glad  and  rejoice  in  His  salvation.” 
(Isa.  xxv.  9.)  We  read  that  the  tabernacle  of 
God  shall  then  be  with  men,  and  they  shall  see 
His  face.  We  read  that  a  holy  city,  whose 
builder  and  maker  is  God,  shall  come  to  sight, 
and  that  even  the  light  of  the  sun  and  the  moon 
shall  fade  before  the  supernal  light  of  that  day, 


80  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


as  if  the  sun  itself  were  but  a  shadow  of  a  more 
glorious  light  beyond,  the  shadow  passing  away 
before  the  substance. 

Thus  iu  the  economy  of  God  all  things,  from 
the  beginning,  have  been  tending  toward  mani¬ 
festation.  Things  invisible  become  visible.  Se¬ 
cret  tilings  are  brought  to  light.  Even  God  Him¬ 
self  became  embodied.  And  the  hidden  Christ, 
the  Brightness  of  the  Father’s  glory  and  the  ex¬ 
press  Image  of  His  person,  must  be  revealed 
through  the  parted  heavens  which  received  Him 
out  of  sight.  And  the  heavens  shall  stand  open 
and  all  things  be  disclosed  in  the  light  of  His 
presence. 

And  in  order  that  we  may  not  mistake  as  to 
these  great  promises  of  the  future,  we  need  to 
guard  against  the  common  mistake  of  divorcing 
the  visible  part  of  God’s  creation  from  the  in¬ 
visible,  or  of  supposing  that  the  realm  of  things 
seen  is  the  only  realm  of  life.  The  seen  and  the 
unseen  are  the  two  halves  of  one  system ;  the  one 
answering  to  the  other  and  revealing  it,  now,  in¬ 
deed,  as  through  a  glass  darkly.  But  hereafter  the 
dark  gates  of  visible  things  shall  be  thrown  open, 
and  we  shall  see  the  splendors  concealed  behind 
these  walls.  And,  best  of  all,  “  we  shall  see  Him.” 
And  we  shall  know  God  and  see  His  face. 

And  here  it  will  be  useful  for  us  to  observe 
that  the  effort  of  mankind  in  these  last  days  is 


THINGS  VISIBLE  AND  INVISIBLE. 


81 


specially  directed  toward  the  conquest  of  things 
invisible.  We  bind  an  invisible  vapor  in  a  har¬ 
ness  of  iron  and  make  it  our  strong  untiring  ser¬ 
vant.  It  drives  our  steamships  across  the  seas  and 
draws  our  railroad  trains  swiftly  over  the  land. 
The  clouds  of  steam  and  smoke  that  escape  from 
these  swift- messengers  we  might  fancy  to  be  angels’ 
wings.  They  are  much  nearer  being  that  than  we 
suppose.  And  so  we  have  trained  the  lightning 
to  carry  messages  for  us  over  the  earth  and  under 
the  sea  and  to  audibly  repeat  our  words.  And  we 
are  compelling  the  same  agent  to  light  up  our 
cities  at  night  with  shreds  of  sunlight.  We  are 
storing  its  dynamic  energy  in  jars  and  boxes  to  be 
transported  for  use,  like  a  can  of  milk  or  a  keg  of 
powder.  And  we  talk  of  catching  the  mighty 
force  of  Niagara,  and  even  of  the  waves  of  the 
sea,  and  conducting  it  by  wires  over  the  land  for 
man’s  use.  Such  are  some  of  the  treasures  open¬ 
ing  out  to  man  in  this  realm  of  things  invisible, 
which  he  is  only  beginning  to  explore.  But  these 
treasures  are  won  now  at  a  fearful  cost  of  toil  and 
blood.  These  potent  agents  are  not  always  docile 
servants.  They  often  burst  our  bands  and  scatter 
death  and  destruction  around.  And  our  best 
triumphs  are  but  faint  fore-gleams  of  the  wonders 
to  be  disclosed  when  unseen  things  shall  be  brought 
to  sight  with  the  manifestation  of  the  Lord  of 
this  whole  realm. 
f 


82  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


Not  until  then  will  man  come  to  his  true  heri¬ 
tage  of  these  works  of  God’s  hands.  Toward 
this  disclosure  all  things  are  tending.  All  nature, 
all  prophecy  points  that  way.  Scripture  is  a 
written  promise ;  nature,  a  parable  of  that  grand 
issue.  Human  progress  is  all  toward  it,  although 
much  of  it  is  but  a  blind,  or,  still  worse,  an  arro¬ 
gant  attempt  to  climb  into  heaven  some  other  wav 
than  up  that  narrow  but  shining  path  along  which 
Jesus  reached  the  throne  of  universal  dominion. 
There  is  an  arch-deceiver  who  has  ever  been  mis¬ 
leading  the  human  race  as  to  its  true  goal,  and  the 
only  method  of  reaching  it.  From  the  first  he 
has  been  persuading  man  that  he  can  make  him¬ 
self  as  God.  But  there  is  one  who  is  working 
below  all  the  deep  craft  of  Satan  to  defeat  him  on 
the  theatre  and  at  the  very  crisis  of  his  apparent 
triumph.  God’s  plan  cannot  be  thwarted,  and 
He  will  finally  lead  man,  although  by  a  way  he 
knew  not,  and  which  shall  so  humble  him  that  no 
flesh  will  glory  in  His  presence,  out  into  the  light 
of  that  coming  day  when  the  hidden  glories  of 
unseen  things  shall  come  to  sight,  and  the  hidden 
powers  of  the  universe  be  made  to  acknowledge 
man  as  their  lawful  sovereign  and  to  do  his  bid¬ 
ding,  and  both  departments  of  God’s  universal 
kingdom,  the  visible  and  the  invisible,  the  heavens 
and  the  earth,  be  bound  together  into  one  harmo¬ 
nious  and  universal  kingdom. 


THINGS  VISIBLE  AND  INVISIBLE. 


83 


In  the  light  of  this  change,  which  is  to  pass 
upon  this  system  of  “  things  present/’  we  can  dis¬ 
cern  something  of  the  reason  why  Scripture  pro¬ 
nounces  the  things  that  are  seen  as  “  temporal/’ 
and  why  “  the  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away.” 
We  see  also  why  this  region  of  transient  perish¬ 
able  forms  becomes  a  region  of  temptation  and 
discipline.  Our  great  danger  lies  in  our  govern¬ 
ing  ourselves  according  to  these  things  of  time  and 
sense.  We  walk  in  the  liarh t  of  the  things  we 
see,  by  faith  and  not  by  sight.  We  deem  these 
tangible  rewards  of  fame  and  wealth  and  pleasure 
the  only  things  worth  grasping.  But  the  religion 
of  Jesus  is  a  voice  from  heaven,  teaching  us  that 
the  things  we  see  and  prize  so  much  are  transient 
and  perishable.  It  tells  us  about  a  life  to  come, 
and  calls  upon  us  to  lose  this  life  in  order  to  gain 
it.  It  tells  us  of  a  crown  of  life  that  fadeth  not 
away,  of  a  continuing  city  whose  glories  never  de¬ 
cline,  of  an  inheritance,  incorruptible  and  undefiled, 
of  a  kingdom  that  cannot  be  moved,  of  a  new 
heavens  and  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness, 
and  bids  us,  a s  did  Paul,  to  count  all  things  but 
loss  that  we  may  win  Christ,  and  be  found  in 
Him,  and  so  attain  to  the  splendors  and  dignities 
of  that  glorified  manhood  in  which  He  was  raised 
from  the  dead. 

Taken  up,  as  we  are  so  apt  to  be,  with  questions 
about  our  eating  and  drinking,  our  dress,  our 


84  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


planting  and  building ;  absorbed  as  we  are  in  our 
counting-rooms  and  with  our  newspapers  over  the 
events  of  the  day,  busied  as  we  are  with  specula¬ 
tions  and  schemes  for  money-making  or  for  pleas¬ 
ure,  oh,  how  we  need  to  have  our  attention  aroused 
and  fixed  upon  things  unseen  and  eternal !  the  fact 
that  the  true  realm  of  our  life  is  the  one  that  over¬ 
bounds  and  overtops  this  present;  that  only  a  thin 
door  separates  us  from  it  and  from  God’s  presence 
which  pervades  it ;  that  we  are  but  pilgrims  with 
our  tents  pitched  upon  these  sands  of  time  but  for 
a  night  before  we  pass  into  the  realm  of  the  in¬ 
visible,  where  is  our  eternal  home.  How  are  we 
prepared  for  the  change  ?  Not  only  are  we  moving 
rapidly  into  that  unseen  realm,  but  it  is  also  crowd¬ 
ing  down  upon  us.  Its  hidden  realities  are  fast 
coming  to  sight.  The  veil  will  soon  be  rent.  The 
Lord  is  at  hand.  Soon  we  must  face  these  mys¬ 
teries  and  stand  before  the  Son  of  man.  May 
God  enable  us  to  look  not  at  the  things  which  are 
seen  and  temporal,  but  at  the  things  which  are 
unseen  and  eternal,  and  to  endure  to  the  end,  as 
seeing  Him  who  is  invisible.  And  so  when  He 
shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  Him  and  appear  with 
Him  in  glory. 


VI. 


THE  PRINCE  OF  THIS  WORLD. 

Now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world  be  cast  out. — St.  John 
xii.  31. 

The  Scriptures  make  frequent  mention  of  a 
powerful  and  malignant  being,  who  is  the  foe  of 
God  and  man,  and  the  author  of  the  world’s  evil. 
Thrice  in  these  last  discourses  of  our  Lord  he  is 
spoken  of  as  “  the  prince  of  this  world.” 

In  order  to  arrive  at  the  meaning  of  this  title 
we  observe,  first,  that  there  are  two  principal 
words  of  Scripture  rendered  “  world.”  The  most 
frequent  of  these  is  xoa/ioq,  the  primary  meaning 
of  which  is  “  order.”  This  is  one  of  the  char¬ 
acteristic  words  of  St.  John’s  writings,  in  whose 
gospel  alone  it  occurs  more  than  seventy  times, 
and  who  never  uses  It  refers  primarily  to 

this  present  order  of  nature,*  and  secondarily  to 
mankind  as  developed  into  social  and  govern¬ 
mental  forms  under  this  world-system.  Or,  more 
concretely,  it  means  the  human  race.f  It  also 
denotes  the  present  order  of  things  as  the  seat  of 


*  John  i.  10. 


f  Matt.  v.  14;  John  iii.  16. 
8  85 


86  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


evil  and  sin  and  the  source  of  temptation,  as 
where  we  are  warned  to  “  Love  not  the  world, 
neither  the  things  of  the  world.  For  all  that  is 
in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust 
of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life,  is  not  of  the 
Father,  but  is  of  the  world,  and  the  world  passeth 
away  and  the  lust  thereof.”  (1  John  ii.  15,  16.) 

The  second  principal  word  is  aim.  This  word 
leaves  out  of  view  the  primary  thought-  of  the 
other,  that  of  natural  order,  and  of  the  world  of 
mankind  as  developed  under  it.  Its  primary 
meaning  is  “  dispensation.”  It  refers  to  the 
course  of  the  world  within  certain  time-bound¬ 
aries.  And  hence  in  the  unfolding  of  God’s  pur¬ 
poses  there  are  successive  seons,  or  worlds.  This 
world  or  “  age”  has  its  well-defined  features  and 
limits.  In  this  view  of  the  “  world”  the  devil  is 
said  to  be  the  god  of  it.  (2  Cor.  iv.  4.) 

But  especially  and  repeatedly  is  he  spoken  of 
by  Jesus  in  this  connection  as  “  the  prince  of  this 

Let  us  now  seek  to  ascertain  the  meaning  of 
this  title.  So  far  as  this  word  represents  the  evil 
systems  which  have  grown  up  under  this  present 
order  of  the  world,  or  the  evil,  whether  physical 
or  moral,  which  is  intrenched  in  it,  we  have  no 
difficulty  in  recognizing  the  meaning  of  this  title 
or  in  confessing  to  the  justice  of  it.  We  do  not  pro¬ 
pose,  therefore,  to  dwell  upon  these  features  of  the 


THE  PRINCE  OF  THIS  WORLD. 


87 


devil’s  sovereignty,  which  all  acknowledge.  Our 
purpose  is  rather  to  inquire  whether,  in  explain¬ 
ing  this  title5  we  have  any  right  to  empty  this 
word  u  cosmos”  of  the  main  part  of  its  meaning. 
Has  this  malign  and  powerful  being,  to  whom 
Scripture  so  often  refers,  and  to  whom  it  gives  a 
variety  of  names,  setting  forth  differing  phases  of 
his  evil  work,  any  control  of  this  present  created 
system?  Is  he  in  any  proper  sense  the  prince 
of  this  cosmos  ? 

In  the  previous  pages  it  has  been  throughout 
maintained  that  the  universe  is  pervaded  by  living 
powers,  which,  if  not  identical  with  the  forces  of 
nature,  are  the  agents  by  whom  these  forces  are 
energized  and  controlled.  There  seem  to  be,  how¬ 
ever,  two  orders  of  these  cosmic  forces  or  angelic 
powers.  Or,  at  least,  there  are  two  classes  of 
effects  produced  by  them.  There  is  an  ascending 
series  of  effects  from  chaos  to  order,  from  the  in¬ 
organic  to  the  organic,  from  the  inanimate  to  the 
animat#,  from  decay  to  beauty,  from  death  to  life, 
from  sin  or  lawlessness*  to  purity  and  peace. 
And  there  is  a  descending  series  from  order  back 
to  chaos,  from  embodiment  to  dissolution,  from 
beauty  to  mire,  from  life  to  death,  and  from  moral 
order  to  disorder  and  frenzy  and  destruction. 
Whether  there  are  two  hierarchies  of  these  forces, 


*  1  John  iii.  4,  E.  Y. 


88  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


the  constructive  and  destructive,  a  kingdom  of 
forces  beneficent  and  life-giving,  and  one  of  evil 
and  death,  or  whether  evil  effects  are  due  to  the 
excessive  and  unrestrained  actings  of  forces  good 
in  themselves,  we  may  not  determine.  Scripture, 
however,  seems  to  carry  the  idea,  at  least  on  its 
surface,  of  two  separate  kingdoms  or  hierarchies, 
the  one  of  light,  the  other  of  darkness. 

It  is  affirmed,  indeed,  that  Jesus  is  now  exalted 
Head  over  all  principalities  and  powers,  .  .  . 
and  every  name  that  is  named  in  heaven  or  on 
earth.  (Eph.  i.  21.)  But  we  read  also  that  He 
has  not  yet  put  down  all  rule  and  authority  and 
power.  (1  Cor.  xv.  24-28.) 

Again,  it  is  declared  that  all  angels  are  “  minis¬ 
tering  spirits  sent  forth  to  minister  for  them  who 
shall  be  heirs  of  salvation.”  (Ileb.  i.  14.)  And 
yet  we  are  taught  that  we  wrestle  for  the  crown 
of  life  against  a  hierarchy  of  evil  powers,  “  world 
rulers  of  this  darkness  and  spiritual  hosts  of 
wickedness  in  the  heavenly  places.”  (Eph.  vi.  12, 
R.  V.)  While,  therefore,  all  the  forces  of  the 
universe  owe  allegiance  to  the  Christ,  some  of 
them  are  not  yet  subdued  to  Him.  And  all  evil 
effects,  both  moral  and  physical,  are  ascribed  to 
their  agency.  They  draw  a  trail  of  death  through 
all  the  regions  of  created  life.  Every  form  of 
vegetable  life  has  its  enemy,  its  parasite  or  mildew 
and  blight.  Every  animal  is  subject  to  disease 


THE  PRINCE  OF  THIS  WORLD . 


89 


and  to  corruption.  And  lie  c<  that  hath  the  power 
of  death”  is  the  devil.  (Heb.  i.  14.)  A  fortiori, 
he  has  the  power  of  disease.*  And  the  forces 
which  produce  these  effects  are  seen  to  be  the 
great  natural  forces  which  prevail  not  only  on  the 
earth  but  throughout  creation.  The  sun  smites 
by  day,  and  the  moon  by  night.  For  the  origin 
of  pestilence  and  malaria  and  noxious  gases  and 
poisons  and  the  venom  in  beasts  we  must  go  back 
of  mere  local  causes.  The  agencies  that  produce 
them  are  inwrought  into  the  fabric  of  this  created 
system.  They  are  a  part  of  its  universal  forces. 
These  are  all  forms  of  the  enemy’s  power.  (Luke 
x.  19.)  How  close  and  vital  and  diffusive  that 
power  is  we  may  learn  from  the  ascription  to  the 
devil  of  such  a  title  as  “  prince  of  the  power  of 
the  air.”  (Eplies.  ii.  1.) 

Not  only  are  there  malign  forces  which  perpet¬ 
uate  the  reign  of  evil  and  of  death.  Even  the 
beneficent  forces  of  nature  are  sometimes  armed 
with  destructive  energy.  A  cold  wave  from  the 
north  laden  with  magnetic  and  vital  energies  may 
bring  also  the  seeds  of  death  to  hundreds  of  the 
feeble  and  the  aged.  The  forces  that  are  active 
in  raising  a  storm  at  sea  produce  by  their  com¬ 
motion  salutary  effects  in  the  system  of  nature. 
And  yet  these  forces  may  toss  hundreds  of  human 


*  Luke  xiii.  1G  ;  Acts  x.  38. 
8* 


90  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


lives  into  the  dragon-jaws  of  death.  When  we 
read  the  accounts  of  appalling  calamities  on  land 
and  sea,  in  which  hecatombs  of  human  lives 
are  slaughtered  by  these  fierce  powers  of  nature 
without  a  sign  of  pity,  we  do  not  wonder  at 
the  fearful  indictment  which  some  writers,  like 
John  Stuart  Mill,  have  brought  in  against  them. 

Looking  at  the  twofold  front  which  the  great 

forces  of  nature  wear  toward  man,  now  his  kindly 

friends  and  again  his  remorseless  cruel  foes,  we 

may  ask  again,  Are  there  two  systems  of  these 

powers,  the  one  of  life  the  other  of  death  ?  Or 

are  there,  back  of  them,  two  orders  of  spiritual 

powers,  both  of  which  are  able  to  wield  these 

forces  so  that  they  become  in  the  hands  of  one 

ministers  of  life  and  blessing,  and  in  those  of  the 

other  ministers  of  wrath,  as  when  Satan  wielded 

them  against  Job?  Or  is  the  evil  in  them  only 

an  excessive  and  lawless  energy,  which  is  hereafter 

to  be  subdued  and  bound  to  the  throne  of  Christ 

and  made  tributary  of  blessing  to  mankind  ?  We 

may  not  be  able  to  decide  these  hard  questions. 

But  of  one  thing  we  may  be  sure.  These  forces  of 

evil  and  death,  of  which  Satan  is  the  prince,  belong 

to  this  system  of  cosmic  forces.  If  not  identical 
* 

with  them,  their  connection  is  most  intimate.  We 
are  to  recognize  that,  for  His  own  wise  purposes 
of  man’s  discipline,  God  has  permitted  Satan  to 
usurp  control  in  this  cosmos.  He  is  its  prince. 


THE  PRINCE  OF  THIS  WORLD . 


91 


And  yet,  as  Jesus  affirms  in  the  text,  this  prince 
shall  be  cast  out.  The  resurrection  of  Christ, 
toward  which  this  saying  is  directed,  was  the 
triumph  of  the  Prince  of  life.  Henceforth  not 
death  but  life  was  to  be  triumphant  master  in  this 
cosmos.  Its  whole  history,  from  the  first,  is  a 
history  of  light  triumphing  over  darkness,  and 
life  over  death.  And  yet  these  victories  were 
always  followed  by  fresh  defeats.  But  when  the 
Christ  was  glorified  in  eternal  life,  and  crowned 
head  over  all  things,  then  the  prince  of  this  world, 
while  not  yet  destroyed,  was  dethroned.  And  the 
Christ  must  reign  until  this  enemy  and  his  great 
ally,  death,  are  destroyed. 

We  have  seen,  however,  that  this  prince  is  not 
actually,  only  potentially,  dispossessed.  Still  sin 
reigns  unto  death.  And  still  the  world  remains 
as  a  battle-ground  on  which  God’s  saints  are 
trained  for  future  warfare  and  dominion.  Hence 
their  present  wrestling  against  principalities  and 
powers. 

These  enemies  are  not  the  remote  impalpable 
foes  that  we  imagine.  They  touch  us  at  every 
point  at  which  we  come  in  contact  with  this  natural 
system.  They  gain  access  along  all  the  avenues 
of  this  embodied  life.  As  born  under  this  present 
natural  system,  we  are  now  in  the  enemy’s  coun¬ 
try.  The  elements  of  nature,  most  necessary  to 
our  sustenance,  such  as  the  atmosphere,  pertain 


92  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


to  His  domain.  (Eph.  ii.  1.)  Danger  lurks  not 
only  in  every  passion,  but  in  every  necessary  ap¬ 
petite.  All  this  may  help  us  to  understand  some¬ 
thing  of  the  nature  of  that  far-reaching  conflict 
in  which  we  are  engaged.  It  is  a  contest  with 
powers  that  now  usurp  the  inheritance  to  which 
redeemed  man  is  destined,  and  who  therefore  come 
down  against  him  in  great  wrath,  because  they 
know  their  time  is  short. 

Knowing  thus  the  forms  of  their  attack,  and  our 
multiform  dangers,  we  see  the  need  of  constant 
vigilance.  We  discover  the  lines  along  which  we 
are  to  expect  the  enemy  and  how  we  are  to  stand 
guard  against  him.  He  meets  us  along  all  these 
well-worn  avenues  of  our  physical  life.  Unless 
we  are  armed  against  him  here,  we  leave  the  most 
vulnerable  part  of  our  line  of  battle  undefended. 
Evil  tempers  and  bad  humors  of  body  are  just  as 
truly  his  weapons  as  evil  suggestions  to  the  mind. 
The  one  indeed  breeds  the  other.  It  is  a  man’s 
body  which  brings  him  into  relation  to  this  world- 
system.  And  it  is  the  devil’s  work  to  debase  or 
enfeeble  or  madden  these  life-powers  of  which 
the  body  is  the  battery  and  the  home.  Our  hos¬ 
pitals  and  lunatic  asylums  and  almshouses  and 
prisons  are  filled  with  the  wrecks  he  has  made. 

But  One  stronger  than  he  has  come  to  cast  him 
out.  He  has  spoiled  principalities  and  powers 
and  led  captivity  captive. 


THE  PRINCE  OF  THIS  WORLD. 


93 


He  has  triumphed  over  the  whole  field  of  our 
conflict  and  won  eternal  life  for  man.  And  this 
is  now  His  free  and  loving  gift  to  us.  Believing 
on  Him,  we  get  the  victory,  in  the  power  of  that 
life,  over  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil ;  and 
so  become  part  of  that  Conquering  Seed,  of  whom 
it  is  written,  that  the  God  of  peace  shall  shortly 
bruise  Satan  under  their  feet 


"VII. 


THE  POWER  OF  DARKNESS. 

Who  hath  delivered  us  from  the  'power  of  darkness  and 
hath  translated  us  into  the  kingdom  of  His  dear  Son. — 
Colossians  i.  13. 

Among  the  phenomena  of  nature  there  is  noth¬ 
ing  more  striking  and  suggestive  than  the  contrast 
between  light  and  darkness.  The  first  creative 
act  in  the  bringing  of  order  out  of  chaos  was  the 
production  of  light.  “  Let  there  be  light”  is  the 
first  recorded  word  of  Him  by  whose  Word  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  were  made.  And  the  suc¬ 
cessive  stages  of  this  sublime  work  are  each 
marked  by  “  an  evening  and  a  morning,”  light 
breaking  in  upon  and  driving  away  the  darkness.* 

This  world  is  still  the  scene  of  the  struggle  be¬ 
tween  light  and  darkness.  This  is  true  of  the 
natural  world.  But  nature  is  but  a  mirror,  re¬ 
flecting  to  us  the  tokens  and  operations  of  spiritual 


*  It  is  an  interesting  thought  that  this  order  is  never 
reversed.  It  is  not  a  morning  and  an  evening  that  make 
a  day  in  Genesis  i.  Light  triumphs  over  and  displaces 
each  period  of  darkness.  Everything  in  creation  and  re¬ 
demption  moves  forward  in  this  order,  until  finally  light 
remains  the  triumphant  master.  (Rev.  xxi.  23-25.) 

94 


THE  POWER  OF  DARKNESS. 


95 


powers,  which  are  the  real  permanent  forces  in 
creation.  There  is  a  realm  of  light  and  of  dark¬ 
ness  lying  back  of  these  things  that  appear.  There 
is  a  struggle  between  the  powers  that  rule  in  each, 
of  which  the  processes  of  life  and  growth,  of  decay 
and  death,  in  nature  are  the  outward  token.  It  is 
not  merely  by  a  figure  of  speech  that  the  Bible 
speaks  of  this  world  as  a  realm  of  darkness.  Its 
pages  glow  with  the  promise  of  a  world  to  come, 
in  which  there  shall  be  no  night  and  no  curse,  and 
of  which  God  Himself  shall  be  the  light. 

And  in  contrast  with  that  day  of  splendor,  this 
present  time  is  night,  and  the  reigning  influences 
in  this  sphere  of  things  temporal  “the  power  of 
darkness.” 

This  phrase,  “  the  power  of  darkness,”  implies 
that  there  is  a  personal  agent  who  has  originated 
and  perpetuates  these  malign  influences.  ITe  it  is 
whom  Jesus  denominates  “  the  prince  of  this 
world,”  and  whose  approach  in  the  final  struggle 
which  was  then  upon  Him,  He  speaks  of  as  “  the 
hour  of  the  power  of  darkness.” 

From  this  power,  the  text  asserts,  God  hath  de¬ 
livered  us.  And  by  way  of  contrast,  the  previous 
verse  declares  that  He  hath  “  made  us  meet  for 
the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light.” 

We  shall  now  inquire,  first,  in  what  respect  we 
were  under  bondage  to  this  power  of  darkness,  and, 
secondly,  what  is  the  character  of  our  deliverance. 


96  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


We  have  but  little  idea  of  the  extent  and  rami¬ 
fications  of  the  evil  power  here  specified.  The 
terms  in  which  it  is  described  in  the  Bible  indi¬ 
cate  that  it  is  a  power  coeval  and  commensurate 
with  this  existing  order  of  creation,  and  that  we 
become  subject  to  it  in  the  fact  of  our  birth  into 
this  world-system.  This  “  power  of  darkness”  is 
felt  not  only  in  the  hidden  chambers  of  the  heart, 
and  in  the  reigning  spirit  of  society :  it  pervades 
this  natural  system.  And  as  our  embodied  being 
is  developed  out  of  this  system,  and  is  its  micro¬ 
cosm,  we  become  directly  subject  to  it.  We  feel 
this  power  in  all  the  depressing  influences  that 
debilitate  and  deaden  our  faculties  of  body  and 
mind,  and  finally  quench  them  into  the  grave. 
Satan  has  the  power  of  death  and  of  all  the  evil 
influences  that  produce  it. 

And  especially  is  his  fatal  power  felt  in  those 
who  have  known  the  stirrings  of  a  divine  life  and 
are  yearning  after  God.  They  often  go  “  mourn¬ 
ing  because  of  the  oppression  of  the  enemy.”  (Ps. 
xliii.  2.)  To  know  God  and  Jesus  Christ  His 
Son  is  to  have  the  light  of  life.  The  power  of 
darkness  is  put  forth  to  quench  this  light,  to  stifle 
these  heaven-born  aspirations,  and  to  keep  us 
floundering  in  the  mire  and  mould  of  sin.  It 
exerts  its  potent  energy  through  all  the  senses  and 
appetites  of  our  nature.  The  flesh,  as  the  home 
and  medium  of  the  forces  that  control  this  natural 


THE  POWER  OF  DARKNESS. 


97 


life,  is  pliant  to  its  sway.  The  “  lusts  of  the  flesh” 
testify  to  its  impelling  power.  Even  its  necessary 
appetites  are  avenues  through  which  the  “  rulers 
of  the  darkness  of  this  world”  assail  us.  The 
whole  sphere  of  our  embodied  life  is  the  arena  on 
which  we  wrestle  with  a  principalities  and  powers.” 

This  overshadowing  power  of  darkness  is  not 
felt  by  those  who  are  in  bondage  to  it.  It  is  like 
the  atmospheric  pressure  in  this  respect.  We 
know  that  our  bodies  are  constantly  subjected  to  a 
pressure  on  all  sides  of  fifteen  pounds  to  the  square 
inch  from  the  surrounding  atmosphere.  And  yet 
we  are  not  conscious  of  it.  So  the  power  of  dark¬ 
ness  rests  like  a  pall  and  weighs  like  prison  armor 
upon  its  subjects  ;  and  yet  they  do  not  feel  it. 
But  let  a  man  try  to  escape ;  let  him  reach  out 
after  God  and  after  that  life  of  holiness  without 
which  no  man  can  see  Him,  and  he  will  soon  dis¬ 
cover  that  he  is  loaded  down.  Christians  are  the 
ones  who  know  the  most  of  this  power  of-  the 
enemy.  Jesus  measured  and  coped  with  its  tre¬ 
mendous  force  to  the  utmost  limit.  He  came  to 
deliver  man’s  nature  from  bondage  to  this  present 
evil  world.  (Gal.  i.  4.)  And  in  that  nature,  He 
must  struggle  against  its  reigning  power  unto  vic¬ 
tory.  In  the  pressure  of  this  conflict  He  sweat, 
as  it  were,  great  drops  of  blood  falling  to  the 
ground.  Nor  was  He,  as  we  are  taught  in  Ideb. 
v.  7,  insensible  to  the  fear  of  death. 

E  q  9 


98  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


Every  soul,  born  of  God,  knows  something  of 
the  Christian  conflict,  as  a  struggle  against  physi¬ 
cal  forces  which  have  power  to  enfeeble  and  de¬ 
prave  this  embodied  life,  and  to  break  down  and 
scatter  into  dust  the  casket  in  which  it  is  enshrined. 
But  all  do  not  know  that  it  is  along  these  avenues 
that  we  are  to  expect  Satan’s  assaults,  and  that,  in 
this  region,  we  suffer  under  “the  oppression  of  the 
enemy.”  Many  good  people  make  light  of  the 
idea  that  the  devil  has  power  to  assail  us  through 
the  body.  They  account  for  all  its  disorders  by 
the  operation  of  what  they  call  natural  laws,  and 
smile  when  the  idea  of  Satanic  temptation  is 
suggested.  But  the  very  meaning  of  the  title 
“  prince  of  this  world”  is,  that  somehow  the 
power  of  Satan  has  come  into  the  whole  sphere 
of  natural  law.  Scripture,  indeed,  recognizes  no 
blind  agents  in  nature.  Its  forces  of  nature  are 
living  powers.  And  among  these  forces  is  this 
tremendous  power  of  darkness.  All  the  ties 
which  connect  us  with  this  system  of  nature  be¬ 
come  avenues  for  its  malign  influence.  Bodily 
disorders  are,  therefore,  messengers  of  Satan  to 
buffet  us,  as  was  Paul’s  thorn  in  the  flesh.  Even 
such  infirmities  as  that  which  bowed  together,  for 
eighteen  years,  the  woman  whom  Jesus  healed, 
and  which  might  have  been  due  to  an  ordinary 
rheumatism,  He  ascribed  to  Satan.  (Luke  xiii.  16.) 

All  this,  however,  does  not  exclude  the  thought 


THE  POWER  OF  DARKNESS. 


99 


that  the  region  of  the  mind  is  also  pervaded  by 
this  power.  We  read  that  the  god  of  this  world 
blinds  the  minds  of  them  that  believe  not.  Their 
understanding  is  darkened.  The  opinions  that  men 
frame,  in  this  condition,  are  formed  with  one  set 
of  their  faculties,  their  spiritual  organs,  benumbed. 
They  cannot  discern  the  things  of*  the  Spirit  of 
God.  Hence  we  may  know  what  value  to  put 
upon  the  political  and  scientific  wisdom  of  men 
so  disabled.  It  is  foolishness  with  God.  And 
the  works  of  men  in  this  condition  are  designated 
works  of  darkness,  with  which  Christians  are 
exhorted  to  have  no  fellowship.  Not  only  gross 
sins,  such  as  rioting  and  wantonness,  strife  and 
envying,  are  so  denominated.  But  all  contempt 
of  God,  all  denial  of  His  being  and  His  truth, 
and  of  the  approach  of  His  day  of  judgment, 
which  will  be  a  day  of  light  and  glory,  is  proof 
that  one  is  under  the  power  of  darkness,  sleeping 
in  the  night.  A  man’s  soul  may  be  aroused  to 
great  activity  in  some  lines  of  thought  and  action. 
He  may  be  what  is  called  “a  live  man”  in  science, 
in  politics,  in  business,  or  even  in  religion,  and 
yet,  in  the  view  of  God,  he  may  be  sleeping  in 
the  night  under  the  fatal  potions  the  god  of  this 
world  administers.  How  little  do  men  know  of 
this  subtle,  fearful  power  of  darkness,  amusing 
them  with  all  the  signs  of  life  and  the  phantas¬ 
magoria  of  light,  and  yet  holding  them  spell- 


100  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


bound  under  its  stupefying  sway.  It  is  only 
when  the  Spirit  of  God  arouses  them  to  resist  it, 
that  they  begin  to  realize  how  powerless  they  are 
to  deliver  themselves  from  this  dire  bondage. 

But  we  pass  to  notice  the  character  of  that 
deliverance  of  which  Christians  are  the  subjects. 
For  of  them  it  is  said,  “  Ye  were  formerly  dark¬ 
ness,  but  now  are  ye  light  in  the  Lord  ;”  “  Ye 
are  all  the  children  of  light  and  of  the  day.  Ye 
are  not  of  the  night,  nor  of  darkness.”  (1  Thess. 
v.  4,  5.) 

We  observe,  first,  of  this  deliverance  that  God 

has  effected  it.  “  Giving  thanks  unto  the  Father, 

who  hath  delivered  us.”  As  the  slaverv  was  so 

•/ 

abject  and  its  consequences  so  fatal,  we  needed  a 
Divine  deliverer.  Such  an  one  we  have  in  God. 
This  chapter  exhibits  our  deliverance  as  purposed 
by  His  loving  heart  and  accomplished  by  His 
mighty  power.  This  is  the  first  lesson  of  salva¬ 
tion,  that  we  are  helpless,  and  that  God  is  our 
loving,  Almighty  Saviour.  We  have  said  some¬ 
thing  of  the  extent  of  the  power  of  darkness 
pervading  this  present  constitution  of  the  world 
and  our  embodied  being  as  organized  under  it, 
for  we  “  were  by  nature  children  of  wrath,  even 
as  others.”  But  this  chapter  summons  us  to  con¬ 
template  and  admire  a  plan  of  wider  scope  and 
a  power  of  broader  sweep,  the  eternal,  resistless 
power  of  God,  directed  by  a  heart  of  infinite  love, 


THE  POWER  OF  DARKNESS. 


101 


interposing  to  rescue  us  from  the  power  of  dark¬ 
ness  and  translate  us  into  the  kingdom  of  His 
dear  Son. 

We  observe,  also,  that  the  text  speaks  of  our 
deliverance  in  the  past  tense.  It  is  a  thing  accom¬ 
plished.  The  victory  of  Jesus,  in  our  nature,  over 
all  the  power  of  the  enemy,  was  our  rescue.  It 
was  won  for  us.  And  when  God  raised  Him  from 
the  dead  we  were  also  raised  and  delivered  in 
Him.  His  conflict  with  Satan  and  with  death 
was  not  for  Himself  alone.  It  was  a  great  pub¬ 
lic  transaction.  He  was  the  Second  Man,  the 
Lord  from  heaven.  He  stood  for  us  in  this  trial. 
In  the  view  of  God,  then,  our  deliverance  is 
effected,  although  its  results  are  being  gradually 
and  progressively  wrought  out  in  us  and  in  the 
church.  We  were  in  Christ,  in  the  sense  that  our 
new  life  and  being  were  contained  germinal ly  in 
Him  when  He  died  for  us  and  rose  again.  Hence 
we  are  said  to  have  been  crucified  with  Him,  and 
quickened  with  Him,  and  raised  with  Him,  and 
seated  with  Him  in  heavenly  places.  But  this  new 
life  did  not  become  actual  in  us  until,  in  the  way 
of  faith  on  Him,  we  were  born  of  God.  And 
now  it  is  possessed  by  us  only  in  spirit,  not  yet  in 
body.  Hereafter,  at  the  redemption  of  the  body, 
our  transformation  and  deliverance  will  be  com¬ 
plete.  But  as  this  work  is  all  of  God,  and  cannot 

fail,  as  it  is  the  sure  and  necessary  result  of  that 

9* 


102  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


eternal  compact  of  grace  which  constituted  us  one 
in  life  and  destiny  with  Christ  from  the  beginning 
of  all  things,  His  Word  is  not  content,  especially 
when  it  brings  to  view  the  Divine  side  of  this 
work,  as  in  this  chapter,  to  employ  anything  but 
the  past  tense.  He  hath  delivered  us. 

A  primary  feature  of  this  deliverance  is  the 
forgiveness  of  sins.  This  is  brought  to  view  in 
the  next  verse.  “  In  whom  we  have  redemption 
through  His  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins.” 
The  power  of  darkness  must  retain  its  hold  upon 
us  so  long  as  we  are  under  the  guilt  and  power  of 
sin.  But  such  is  our  partnership  with  Christ  in 
His  great  transaction  that  He,  as  our  Covenant 
Head,  paid  our  penalty  and  so  redeemed  our  lives 
from  destruction.  And  His  death  was  the  death 
of  this  old  nature,  born  and  reared,  as  we  have 
seen,  under  the  shadow  of  this  realm  of  darkness, 
and  hence  the  death  of  its  sin.  The  old  nature, 
it  is  true,  has  not  yet  actually  died  in  us,  nor  have 
its  sins  been  slain.  They  remain  to  hinder  and 
distress  us.  But  the  Word  of  God  is  here  pre¬ 
senting  great  results,  as  they  appear  to  His  mind, 
who  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning,  and  with 
whom  former  things  are  no  more  present  than 
things  to  come.  And  it  is  the  prerogative  of  faith 
to  estimate  these  things,  not  as  they  appear  to  sight, 
but  as  God  views  them.  And  hence  we  are,  by 
faith,  to  regard  all  our  inborn  and  inbred  sin,  and 


THE  POWER  OF  DARKNESS. 


103 


all  our  actual  transgressions,  which  are  the  rivulets 
from  this  corrupt  fountain,  as  forgiven.  Just  in 
proportion  as  we  accept  these  full  results  of  our 
redemption,  and  realize  that  we  are  cleansed,  will 
we  enter  into  and  perpetuate  that  communion  with 
God  which  is  our  life.  Unforgiven  sin  is  an  im¬ 
penetrable  barrier  between  the  soul  and  the  light 
of  His  countenance.  But  when  we  accept  His 
Word  upon  its  face,  and  believe  that  God  has 
graciously  given  us  such  standing  in  Christ  as  puts 
us  on  the  ground  of  complete  forgiveness,  then  the 
cloud  melts  away,  and  the  smile  of  our  reconciled 
Father  brings  peace  and  purity  to  the  heart. 

Moreover,  this  deliverance,  which  is  here  said  to 
be  accompanied  by  translation  into  the  kingdom 
of  His  dear  Son,  introduces  us  into  both  the  pro¬ 
tection  and  the  life  of  that  kingdom.  Its  pro¬ 
tection  secures  us  from  the  machinations  and 
assaults  of  the  power  of  darkness.  And  its  life, 
which  is  the  eternal  life  of  God,  endows  us  with 
an  energy  which  enables  us  to  rise  superior  to  all 
the  downward  drag  of  this  malign  power,  and  to 
death,  which  is  the  hour  of  its  supreme  action. 

Still  another  item  in  our  deliverance  is  here 
brought  to  view.  We  are  said  to  be  made  “  meet 
for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light/7  This 

is  also  the  necessarv  result  of  what  Christ  has 

%/ 

done  for  us.  Our  Father  is  not  satisfied  with 
merely  rescuing  us  from  the  power  of  darkness. 


104  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


He  has  far  better  things  in  store  for  us  than  mere 
salvation.  He  has  an  inheritance  prepared  which, 
in  contrast  with  the  darkness  of  this  world,  is  the 
realm  of  light. 

His  Word  is  freighted  with  the  promise  of  a  new 
creation,  which  shall  supersede  the  old.  These 
fair  fields,  the  product  of  His  creative  power  and 
skill,  are  not  always  to  be  eclipsed  by  this  present 
darkness.  A  great  light  shall  one  day  break 
through  it.  And  Satan  and  his  brood  shall  be. 
driven  into  regions  of  outer  darkness.  And  then, 
the  day  of  glory,  of  which  God  and  the  Lamb 
are  the  everlasting  light.  Far  deeper  than  the 
foundations  on  which  Satan  has  reared  the  throne 
of  his  kingdom  of  darkness  are  those  of  that 
kingdom,  prepared  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  spoken  of  in  the  text  as  “the  kingdom  of 
His  dear  Son.”  Into  this  kingdom  we  are  even 
now  translated.  And  such  is  the  nature  of  the 
fellowship  into  which  we  are  called  with  Christ, 
that  for  this  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light  we 
are  even  now  made  meet. 

And  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  overthrow 
of  the  power  of  darkness,  and  our  complete  and 
eternal  deliverance  from  it,  the  context  assures  us 
that  the  Father  hath  now  raised  Him  to  the  highest 
seat  in  heaven.  He  contemplated,  indeed,  this 
grand  issue  from  the  beginning  of  creation.  For 
we  read  here  that  by  Him,  who  is  our  Deliverer, 


THE  POWER  OF  DARKNESS. 


105 


were  all  things  at  first  created,  whether  they  be 
things  on  earth  or  tilings  in  heaven.  And  He  is 
the  Head  of  the  body,  the  church,  who  is  the 
beginning,  the  first-born  from  the  dead.  We  have 
said  something  of  the  far-reaching  power  of  the 
ruler  of  this  world’s  darkness.  But  here  we  learn 
that  our  triumphant  Lord  made  and  holds  in  the 
hollow  of  His  hand  all  these  adverse  powers.  And, 
moreover,  that  they,  in  their  blind  rage,  are  them¬ 
selves  but  workers  in  that  eternal  plan  which  shall 
issue  in  the  exaltation  of  Christ  and  His  church 
to  the  perpetual  ownership  and  dominion  over 
this  vast  heritage  created  by  His  hands.  Around 
that  throne,  on  which  the  Father  seated  Him  as 
the  Head  of  the  body,  the  church,  there  now 
centre  those  lines  of  power  and  blessing  that  reach 
out  to  the  remotest  past  and  radiate  over  all  the 
future,  and  which  shall  lift  us,  as  by  the  hands  of 
mighty  angels,  above  all  the  downward  pressure 
of  the  power  of  darkness  and  death,  and  out 
of  the  dungeon  of  the  grave,  until,  witli  all  the 
saints  in  light,  we  shall  stand  upon  His  holy 
mountain,  transfigured  and  glorified  with  Christ, 
in  raiment  white  as  the  light,  and  prepared  to 
enter  with  Him  upon  those  administrations  of 
His  kingdom,  which  shall  fill  the  earth  with  the 
knowledge  of  His  glory,  and  flood  the  heavens 
with  a  brighter  light  than  that  which  shines  from 
suns  and  stars. 


THE  NATURAL  AND  THE  SPIRITUAL. 


Howbeit  that  was  not  first  which  is  spiritual ,  but  that 
which  is  natural ;  and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual. 
The  first  man  is  of  the  earth ,  earthy :  the  second  man  is 
the  Lord  from  heaven.  As  is  the  earthy ,  such  are  they  also 
that  are  earthy :  and  as  is  the  heavenly ,  such  are  they  also 
that  are  heavenly.  And  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the 
earthy ,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly. — 1 
Corinthians  xv.  46-49. 

This  passage  occurs  in  the  course  of  that  sub¬ 
lime  argument  by  which  the  apostle  established 
the  faith  of  the  Corinthian  church  in  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  of  the  dead.  No  topic  is  more  prominent  in 
the  sermons  and  letters  of  the  apostles.  In  their 
view  the  resurrection  of  the  saints  was  that  arch 
of  triumph  which  God  is  building  over  the  chasm 
that  separates  earth  from  heaven,  the  realm  of 
death  from  the  realm  of  life;  and  of  that  arch 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  was  the  keystone. 

In  the  first  verse  of  this  passage  a  general 
principle  is  announced,  which  pervades  all  God’s 
works  and  ways,  and  in  accordance  with  which 

the  resurrection  must  proceed.  “  Howbeit  that 
106 


THE  NATURAL  AND  TIIE  SPIRITUAL.  107 


was  not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is 
natural ;  and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual/’ 

Let  us  observe,  first,  how  this  principle  applies 
to  the  works  of  God  in  creation,  and,  secondly, 
how  it  requires,  as  the  succeeding  verses  state,  our 
resurrection  from  the  dead. 

The  human  mind,  in  every  age,  has  cherished 
the  conviction  that  the  works  of  God  in  nature 
reveal  Him.  The  heavens  declare  His  glory. 
And  on  the  earth,  fields,  floods,  and  mountains, 
teeming  with  life  and  beauty,  and  pouring  out 
their  treasures  for  man’s  sustenance  and  delight, 
have  ever  spoken  to  him  of  God.  And  yet,  in 
every  age,  men  have  forgotten  that  nature  is  now 
but  a  shadowy  and  imperfect  revelation  of  Him. 
It  is  crowded,  indeed,  with  the  symbols  of  His 
glory.  It  is  a  grand  store-house  of  patterns  of 
things  in  the  heavens.  But  a  symbol  is  not  the 
thing  itself,  nor  is  the  pattern  of  a  thing  that 

and  affections^  should 
terminate.  This  prime  mistake  lies  at  the  root 
of  that  universal  sin  of  the  race, — idolatry.  The 
things  that  are  made  have  been  a  veil,  which 
God  has  hung  out  of  heaven,  inscribed  all  over 
with  testimonies  to  things  invisible.  They  have 
revealed  His  eternal  power  and  Godhead.  But 
men  have  mistaken  the  creature  for  the  Creator. 
They  have  transferred  to  it  their  homage  and 
service,  and  have  crowded  and  shrouded  the  glory 


upon  which  our  thoughts 


108  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


of  the  incorruptible  God  within  the  limits  of  its 
corruptible  forms.  And  hence  their  debasing 
worship  and  service  of  the  creature.  Arid  this  is 
still  the  germ  of  all  ungodliness  in  our  day  and  in 
Christian  lands.  Naturalism  is  now  the  great  foe 
of  Christianity.  The  great  effort  of  the  enemy, 
in  every  age,  is  to  blind  men  to  the  knowledge  of 
God,  whom  to  know  is  eternal  life,  by  substituting 
in  their  minds  God  revealed  in  nature  for  God 
revealed  in  Christ.  Liberal  Christianity,  so  called, 
is  but  a  disguised  form  cf  this  old  error  of  the 
Wicked  One.  In  subtle  and  unsuspected  ways 
it  summons  men  to  the  study  and  admiration  of 
God  in  nature,  as  an  adequate  and  supreme  reve¬ 
lation  of  Himself,  and  reduces  the  meaning  of 
the  life,  the  death,  and  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
within  its  sphere. 

But  the  distinctive  teaching  of  the  Bible  as  to 
this  point  is,  that  nature,  as  now  constituted,  is 
not  the  final  and  complete  revelation  of  God  ;  that 
it  is  merely  the  shadow  of  a  concealed  substance, 
the  transient  and  corruptible  form  of  that  which 
is  incorruptible  and  abiding;  that  the  likeness 
of  anything  in  heaven,  earth,  or  sea,  nor  the 
likeness  of  man,  as  now  subject  to  sin  and  death, 
is  not  an  adequate  image  of  God,  but  that 
Christ,  the  new  and  risen  Man,  is  His  only  true 
image;  that  He,  through  resurrection,  has  be¬ 
come  the  Head  and  harbinger  of  a  new  crea- 


THE  NATURAL  AND  THE  SPIRITUAL .  109 


tion,  before  which  the  fashion  of  things  present 
passeth  away.  That  which  is  natural  waxeth 
old  and  must  vanish  away  before  that  which  is 
spiritual  and  eternal. 

And  yet,  in  the  order  of  God’s  working,  that 
which  is  natural  must  precede.  It  was  His  pur¬ 
pose,  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  to  fill  the 
wide  realms  of  space  with  works  of  His  hands, 
which  should  be  forever  lighted  with  His  glory, 
and  at  the  altar  of  whose  temple  His  intelligent 
creatures  should  commune  with  Him  and  see  His 
face.  The  heavens  and  the  earth  shall  some  day 
be  so  lighted  with  His  splendor,  and  all  created 
forms  shall  become  the  mirrors  of  His  glory.  But 
first,  as  preparatory  to  this  final  stage,  and  for  the 
wise  and  mysterious  ends  of  human  discipline,  He 
has  constructed  this  present  order,  which  is  made 
subject  to  vanity  and  blighted  with  sin  and  death. 
That  which  is  first  is  natural.  He  has  made  it 
the  battle-ground  on  which  the  Light  which  shall 
bathe  the  new  creation  shall  first  triumph  over 
darkness,  and  the  Life,  which  shall  be  its  anima¬ 
tion  and  joy,  shall  first  triumph  over  death.  He 
has  filled  it  with  traces  of  things  unseen  and 
eternal ;  prophecies  of  things  to  come ;  promises 
of  the  beauty  that  knows  no  blight,  the  splendor 
that  knows  no  waning,  the  life  that  knows  no 
taint  and  no  decline.  But  it  is  still  a  fading, 
evanescent  system,  “  in  bondage  to  corruption,” 


no  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


waiting  itself,  with  us,  to  be  delivered  into  the 
liberty  of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God. 

We  are  not,  therefore,  to  despise  this  present 
world.  For  things  present  are  the  vestibule  to 
things  to  come.  We  are  to  use  it  without  abuse, 
and  estimate  at  their  true  value  the  tokens  of  our 
Father’s  presence  and  the  pledges  of  His  care  and 
goodness  with  which  it  abounds.  Nor  are  we 
to  despise  the  use  of  things  natural,  as  avenues 
by  which  we  attain  to  the  knowledge  of  things 
spiritual.  There  are  many  ways  in  which  this 
principle,  “  Howbeit  that  which  is  first  is  natural,” 
applies  to  the  regulation  of  our  conduct  in  this 
present  world,  and  even  to  the  development  of  our 
spiritual  life.  But  we  are  ever  to  keep  it  in  its 
true  and  subordinate  place.  We  are  not  to  “set 
our  affections”  upon  it.  For  it  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  the  Christian’s  position  in  this  world 
that  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  have  set 
him  free  from  bondage  to  it,  and  that  his  true  life 
and  portion  lie  no  longer  in  the  sphere  of  natural 
things,  but  in  that  spiritual  realm  into  which 
Christ  has  risen,  and  in  which  our  life  is  hid  with 
Him.  (Coloss.  iii.  1-4.) 

But  we  pass  to  observe  that,  as  is  the  natural 
system,  so,  also,  is  man,  its  highest  creature  and 
exponent.  He  is  first,  natural.  He  belongs  to 
this  present  order.  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth, 
earthy.  He  is  made  out  of  the  elements  and 


THE  NATURAL  AND  THE  SPIRITUAL.  HI 


ministered  to  by  the  forces  that  pervade  it.  He 
is  in  bondage  to  its  necessities  and  inflamed  by  its 
appetites.  We  notice  that  this  passage  does  not 
describe  a  special  class  of  men,  such  as  are  swayed 
by  earthly  desires  and  instincts.  The  teaching  of 
the  Spirit  is  that  all  men,  the  first  and  typical  man 
from  whom  all  are  derived,  are  of  the  earth, 
earthy.  He  places  this  first  man  in  contrast  with 
another  order  of  man,  the  spiritual,  the  Second 
Man,  the  Lord  from  heaven.  As  this  present  natu¬ 
ral  system  is  but  a  temporary  scaffolding  around 
that  temple  of  creation,  eternal  in  the  heavens, 
of  which  God  is  the  maker  and  builder,  so  the 
natural  man  is  but  a  fleeting  and  perishable  form 
of  manhood,  fading  like  the  grass,  to  be  followed 
by  a  new  order  of  men  who,  in  the  power  of  an 
incorruptible  life,  derived  from  the  Second  Man, 
shall  stand  at  the  summit  and  enter  upon  the 
possession  of  the  works  of  God  in  that  day  when 
He  shall  make  all  things  new. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  a  correct 
understanding  of  the  divine  scheme  of  salvation, 
of  which  this  chapter  discourses,  and  whose  issue 
is  the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  that  we  should 
clearly  perceive,  first,  that  this  present  system  of 
substance  and  force,  which  we  call  nature,  and 
which  is  shadowed  with  evil,  is  to  be  displaced  by 
another  system  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness; 
and  that  there  are  distinct  types  or  forms  of  man- 


112  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


hood  pertaining  to  each.  The  first  man  is,  like 
the  system  to  which  he  belongs,  made  subject 
to  vanity  and  corruption.  Over  him,  over  the 
whole  field  of  his  enterprise  and  his  grandest 
achievements,  sin  reigns  unto  death.  The  Second 
Man  has  been  raised  out  of  it  and  above  it  to  be 
the  Lord  and  Possessor  of  that  coming  order,  out 
of  which  everything  that  defileth  and  maketh 
a  lie  is  cast,  and  over  which  Satan  can  never  again 
trail  this  dark  shadow  of  death.  Into  the  first 
order  of  humanity  we  are  born  by  nature.  To  the 
second  order  we  must  be  born  from  above,  of  God. 
That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  but  flesh.  That 
which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit.  And,  except 
a  man  be  so  reborn,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom 
of  God.  For,  as  we  all  partake  of  the  nature  of 
the  first  earthy  man,  we  all  share  in  the  sin  which 
infected  it  and  in  the  curse  of  death  pronounced 
against  it.  “  Such  also  are  they  that  are  earthy.” 
And  they  cannot  lift  themselves  out  of  this  rank 
of  being.  This  is  a  work  of  new  creation.  Only 
God  can  raise  the  dead.  They  cannot  possibly 
constitute  themselves  worthy  inheritors  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  For  u  flesh  and  blood  cannot 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,  neither  doth  corrup¬ 
tion  inherit  incorruption. ”  And  so  we  need  an 
Almighty  Saviour  to  bring  to  us  an  eternal  life 
and  invest  us  with  a  heavenly  manhood. 

And  such  an  One  we  are  here  told  of.  The 


THE  NATURAL  AND  THE  SPIRITUAL.  113 


Son  of  man  came  down  from  heaven.  Because 
of  His  heavenly  origin  and  nature,  He  was  able 
to  carry  our  flesh  and  blood  nature  unscathed 
through  the  trials  and  temptations  of  this  earthly 
state.  And  then  He  laid  it  down  in  death,  a  sacri¬ 
fice  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  and  rose  again  on 
the  other  side  of  death  in  that  form  of  pure  and 
spiritual  and  heavenly  manhood  which  cannot  sin 
and  cannot  die.  And  in  this  new  rank  and  order 
of  manhood  He  has  become  not  only  the  Head  of 
the  new  creation,  but  the  source  to  us  also  of  that 
new  life-power,  which  becomes  in  us  a  power  of 
regeneration ;  of  renewal  in  spirit  now,  and  here¬ 
after  of  transformation  in  body  also.  In  this  way 
we,  who  are  born  at  first  natural  and  earthy  men, 
receive  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God.  We 
are  quickened  into  the  life  which  is  spiritual  and 
eternal,  and  shall  be  raised  to  the  same  rank  of 
heavenly  manhood.  For  “as  we  have  borne  the 
image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image 
of  the  heavenly.”  And  the  instrument  by  which 
this  quickening  power  reaches  us  is  the  Word  of 
God  about  His  Son.  To  receive  that  Word  is 
to  receive  Him.  We  are  born  again,  “not  of 
corruptible  seed,  but  of  incorruptible,  by  the 
Word  of  God,  which  livetli  and  abideth  forever.” 
(1  Peter  i.  23.) 

And  what  a  glorious  destiny  is  this  !  The  First 

heavenly  Man  is  now  Lord  of  the  whole  unseen 
h  10* 


114  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


realm  of  nature  and  of  life.  All  the  boundless 
fields  of  light,  which  God  has  spread  through 
space,  are  His  domain.  All  the  powers  that  flash 
through  this  system  and  move  on  its  wheels  are 
His  servants.  He,  as  the  Image  of  the  invisible 
God,  is  the  acknowledged  sovereign  of  this  vast 
estate,  and  it  is  being  fitted  up  to  show  forth 
His  praise.  And  we  also,  as  sharers  in  His  life, 
must  share  in  His  dignity.  We  shall  bear  the 
image  of  the  heavenly  manhood,  which,  through¬ 
out  God’s  empire,  must  be  acknowledged  as  the 
representative  of  His  authority,  the  executer  of 
His  designs,  and  the  channel  of  His  grace  and 
bounty. 

Such  is  the  meaning  of  that  inspiring  hope  of 
the  gospel,  unto  which  we  have  been  begotten,  who 
have  learned  to  love  and  confide  in  Jesus,  who 
died  for  us  and  rose  again. 

We  thus  discover  that  the  salvation,  brought 
nigh  to  men  in  the  gospel,  is  something  more  than 
escape  from  coming  wrath.  It  promises  something 
more  than  a  safe  harbor  after  the  storms  of  this 
life,  or  an  asylum  in  which  we  shall  be  forever 
sheltered  from  its  ills.  It  promises  something  more 
than  purity.  It  reveals  a  heavenly  state  which 
is  more  than  inactive  enjoyment  or  entrancing 
worship.  It  discloses  a  definite  purpose  of  God 
concerning  this  present  world.  It  must  pass  away. 
It  heralds  another,  in  which  redeemed  man  shall 


THE  NATURAL  AND  THE  SPIRITUAL.  115 


rise  to  the  highest  rank  of  being  and  possession. 
It  affirms  that  man,  as  descending  in  the  line  of 
nature  from  Adam,  is  unfit  to  inherit  God’s  king¬ 
dom,  and  reveals  One  who  is  Son  of  God  as  well 
as  Son  of  man,  who  came  to  lift  us  into  His  rank 
of  being,  and  make  us  joint  administrators  in 
His  kingdom.  We  are  to  take  part  with  Him  in 
those  administrations  of  power  and  blessing  by 
which  He  shall  first  rescue  the  earth  from  the 
destroyer’s  reign,  putting  down  all  rule  and  au¬ 
thority  and  power,  until  even  the  last  enemy, 
which  is  death,  is  destroyed  :  and  by  which  He 
shall  extend  His  benign  and  healing  sway,  in  ever- 
widening  circles,  to  the  remotest  confines  of  this 
created  system.  Such  is  the  sublime  trust  the 
Father  has  confided  to  the  hands  of  the  First 
heavenly  Man,  “  that  He  might  reconcile  all  things 
unto  Himself,  whether  they  be  things  on  earth  or 
things  in  heaven.”  And  in  the  execution  of  it, 
and  in  the  glory  which  pertains  to  it,  He  is  not 
ashamed  to  call  us  brethren.  This,  then,  is  our 
high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus,  of  which  we  are 
exhorted  to  walk  worthy. 

And  this  unspeakable  boon  is  conferred  upon 
the  simple  condition  of  faith  ;  the  faith  which 
first  accepts  and  then  obeys,  or  acts  as  if  it  be¬ 
lieved.  Such  reward  no  man  can  earn.  Eternal 
life  is  the  gift  of  God.  In  every  sinner,  who  con¬ 
fesses  his  own  vileness  and  unfitness,  as  an  earthy 


116  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


man,  for  God’s  kingdom,  and  who  calls  Jesus 
Lord,  this  life  begins.  The  process  by  which 
it  is  imparted  and  nourished  is  mysterious,  as  are 
all  the  processes  of  life.  Jesus  compares  it  to 
the  movements  of  the  viewless  wind.  It  is  not 
necessary  that  we  should  be  able  to  analyze  or 
trace  it.  We  are  not  to  detect  it  by  any  process 
of  introspection.  Its  beginnings,  like  those  of 
natural  life,  may  be  all  unknown  and  unmarked 
by  us.  We  are  only  to  concern  ourselves  with 
the  Divine  Source  and  Giver;  and  are  assured 
that,  trusting  in  Him,  our  faith  is  itself  the  dawn 
of  life,  and  that  He  will  fulfil  in  us  this  work  of 
faith  with  power,  until  renewed  in  spirit  by  His 
transforming  power,  we  shall  hereafter  be  trans¬ 
figured  in  body  also  into  that  form  of  heavenly 
manhood  through  which  all  God’s  great  designs 
shall  be  executed  over  the  field  of  creation,  in  the 
ages  to  come. 


I2C. 


THE  OLD  MAN  AND  THE  NEW. 

That  ye  put  off  concerning  the  former  conversation  the 
old  man ,  which  is  corrupt  according  to  the  deceitful  lusts ; 
and  be  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  your  mind ;  and  that  ye 
put  on  the  new  man ,  'which  after  God  is  created  in  righteous¬ 
ness  and  true  holiness. — Ephesians  iv.  22-24. 

These  and  kindred  expressions  have  a  strange 
sound  to  a  man  who  has  not  been  taught  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  to  appreciate  their  meaning.  Let 
us,  then,  inquire,  What  is  this  old  man  we  are 
urged  to  “  put  off,”  and  what  the  new  man  we 
are  to  “  put  on”  ? 

It  is  obvious  that  there  is  a  personal  self  to 
whom  this  exhortation  is  addressed,  and  who  is 
responsible  to  obey  it ;  and  who,  therefore,  is  not 
identical  with  either  the  old  man  or  the  new.  I 
cannot  be  exhorted  to  put  off  myself,  but  an  evil 
nature  external  to  myself.  Personality  resides  in 
the  human  spirit.  This  is  now  embodied  in  an 
earthy  form,  and,  by  reason  of  sin,  it  is  enslaved 
in  this  natural  system.  Christ  came  to  emanci¬ 
pate  it  from  this  bondage,  to  restore  it  to  fellow¬ 
ship  with  God,  and  to  endow  it  with  eternal  life. 

There  are  two  distinct  types  of  manhood  set 

117 


118  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


before  us  in  Scripture,  and  only  two.  Some  of 
the  names  which  designate  these  and  set  them  in 
contrast  are  “carnal,”  “spiritual;”  “the  natural 
man,”  “  the  spiritual ;”  “  they  that  are  after  the 
flesh,”  “they  that  are  after  the  Spirit;”  “the  old 
man,”  “the  new  man;”  “  the  earthy  man,”  “the 
heavenly ;”  “  the  first  man,”  “  the  Second  Man.” 
And  more  definitely  it  speaks  of  the  respective 
heads  of  these  two  classes  of  men  as  “Adam” 
and  “  Christ.”  As  to  the  first  man,  we  read  that 
the  Lord  God  formed  him  out  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground.  And  hence  he  is  spoken  of  as  “  earthy.” 
Although  endowed  by  his  Maker  with  a  spirit,  he 
is  a  product  of  the  earth.  It  yields  the  elements 
which  compose  and  nourish  his  frame.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  curiously  wrought  in  the  lowest  parts 
of  the  earth.  (Ps.  cxxxix.  15.)  He  is  the  high¬ 
est  efflorescence  of  all  the  substances  and  forces 
of  which  the  earth  is  the  reservoir,  and  which 
pervade  the  universe.  Hence  he  is  also  styled  the 
“natural  man.”  He  pertains  to  this  system  of 
nature.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  he  is  its  highest  crea¬ 
ture.  All  the  elements  and  forces,  the  “  princi¬ 
palities  and  powers”  of  this  created  system,  are 
somehow  related  or  tributary  to  him.  But  this 
type  of  man  is  mortal.  “Dust  thou  art,  and  unto 
dust  thou  shalt  return,”  was  the  Creator’s  sentence 
upon  him.  And  since  then  the  Adam  and  all  the 
successive  tribes  and  generations  into  which  the 


THE  OLD  MAN  AND  THE  NEW. 


119 


first  man  has  been  multiplied  have  gone  back  to 
dust. 

But  this  mortality  is  the  result  of  sin.  This 
“old  man”  dies  because,  as  the  text  states,  it  is 
“  corrupt  according  to  the  lusts  of  deceit.”  This 
indicates  the  manner  in  which  its  corruption  be¬ 
gan.  Eve  and  Adam  desired  the  forbidden  fruit. 
They  were  deceived  by  the  devil’s  lie  that  they 
should  be  as  God,  knowing  good  and  evil.  This 
deceitful  lust  led  them  to  transgress.  And  so 
“  by  one  man  sin  entered  the  world,  and  death 
by  sin.  And  so  death  passed  upon  all  men  in 
that  all  sinned.” 

It  is  most  important  to  know  that,  since  that 
day,  this  type  of  man  has  always  presented  the 
'same  essential  features.  Differences  of  race,  of 
education,  have  produced  surface  changes  of  char¬ 
acter.  Philosophy  and  culture  have  wrought  ex¬ 
terior  refinements  and  mitigations  of  the  original 
evil.  Civilization  has  softened  or  concealed  its 
barbarities.  And  yet,  radically,  this  type  of  man¬ 
hood  remains  unchanged.  Wherever  you  find  the 
descendants  of  the  first  man,  under  whatever  skies 
or  auspices,  this  description  remains  true,  “  Cor¬ 
rupt  according  to  the  lusts  of  deceit.”  If  he  is 
not  found  to  be  inflamed  with  sensual  lusts,  there 
is  vet  some  vice  of  the  mind;  it  may  be  some 
fine  frenzy,  or  even  noble  desire,  which,  however 
widely  or  grandly  it  soars,  still  swings  around  self 


120  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


as  its  centre.  The  fact  of  man’s  mortality  is  not 
more  universal  than  this  fact  of  depravity,  of 
which  it  is  the  witness. 

In  the  deepest  view,  then,  this  Adamic  human 
nature  is  the  old  man  of  which  this  Scripture 
speaks. 

And  so  the  “  new  man”  is  the  Christ  nature, 
whose  transforming  energy  is  first  manifest  in  the 
renewing  of  “  the  spirit  of  the  mind,”  and,  ulti¬ 
mately,  in  the  refashioning  of  the  body. 

In  an  important  sense,  the  new  man  antedates 
the  old.  For,  in  the  thought  of  God,  the  perfect 
image  of  Himself,  as  it  was  to  be  realized  in  man¬ 
hood,  was  the  Man,  Christ  Jesus.  Not  Christ 
after  the  flesh,  as  is  now  the  common  misconcep¬ 
tion,  but  the  Christ  of  the  new  creation.  (2  Cor. 
v.  16,  17.)  Adam  w^s  only  a  figure  of  Him  who 
was  to  come.  A  marred  and  dying  manhood 
could  not  be  a  suitable  image  of  the  eternal  God. 
This  was  realized  only  in  the  risen  Jesus.  All 
previous  processes  in  creation,  and  the  first  forma¬ 
tion  of  an  image  of  God  in  clay,  were  but  pre¬ 
paratory  to  the  production  of  this  new  and  incor¬ 
ruptible  manhood,  the  Perfect  Image  of  Himself. 
He  is,  then,  “  the  New  Man.”  The  first  man  is 
of  the  earth,  earthy.  He  is  the  Lord  from  heaven. 
The  first  man  is  natural.  The  Second  Man  tran¬ 
scends  the  whole  realm  of  nature.  He  came,  in¬ 
deed,  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and  so  into 


THE  OLD  MAN  AND  THE  NEW. 


121 


voluntary  subjection  to  this  present  order.  His 
temptation  in  the  wilderness  was  essentially  the 
devil’s  effort  to  induce  Him  to  throw  off  this  yoke, 
and  assert  His  sovereignty  over  the  resources  and 
angelic  powers  and  the  kingdoms  of  this  world- 
system  before  the  time.  To  this  lordship  He  was 
destined.  But  He  was  only  to  reach  it  through 
resurrection.  He  must  first,  through  death,  purge 
our  manhood  from  sin  and  deliver  it  from  the 
power  of  death.  And  therefore,  in  our  flesh  and 
blood,  He  went  down  into  the  depths  of  this  con¬ 
flict  with  Him  that  hath  the  power  of  death.  The 
hour  of  His  bodily  dissolution  was  not  only  the 
crisis  of  human  redemption.  It  was  the  grand 
trial  whether  man,  as  the  embodied  image  of  God, 
should  reach  the  throne  to  which  his  Creator  had 
from  the  beginning  assigned  him;  whether  he 
should  triumph  over  the  powers  that  had  hitherto 
enslaved  and  destroyed  him,  and  win  immortality 
and  sovereignty  over  this  created  system.  And 
Jesus,  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  man,  was  victorious. 
Having  spoiled  principalities  and  powers,  He 
made  a  show  of  them  openly,  triumphing  over 
them  in  it.  (Coloss.  ii.  15.)  Or  again,  as  we  read 
in  the  chapter  preceding  the  text,  “  When  He 
ascended  up  on  high,  He  led  captivity  captive  and 
gave  gifts  unto  men.  Now  that  He  ascended, 
what  is  it  but  that  He  also  descended  first  into  the 

lower  parts  of  the  earth.”  We  cannot  comprehend 

ll 


F 


122  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


all  these  expressions  signify.  But  they  teach  that 
Jesus  assumed  our  natural  manhood  and  came 
into  conflict  with  all  the  elements  and  forces,  or, 
in  Scripture  language,  “the  principalities  and 
powers”  of  this  natural  system,  iu  subjection  to 
which  man  became  corruptible  and  mortal;  and 
that,  in  dying,  He  went  down  beneath  their  yoke 
in  order  that,  in  the  power  of  His  sinless  and 
eternal  life,  He  might  break  that  yoke  for  Him¬ 
self  and  for  us,  and  bring  up  out  of  the  realm  of 
death  a  regenerated  manhood,  triumphant  over 
them  all.  So  that  “the  new  man”  is  not  an  im¬ 
proved  natural  man,  subservient  still  to  the  laws 
and  forces  of  the  natural  system,  which  return 
him  to  the  dust  from  whence  he  sprang.  He  is 
superior  to  the  whole  realm  of  nature.  All  things 
are  his,  whether  the  world,  or  life,  or  death,  or 
things  present  or  things  to  come.  And  all  things 
must  be  put  forever  beneath  his  feet. 

Such  is  the  origin  and  such  the  character  and 
dignity  of  the  new  man,  whom  in  so  many  and 
striking  ways,  the  Scripture  places  in  contrast  to 
the  old  man,  blighted  by  sin  and  going  down  to 
corruption.  They  are  distinct  creations. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  discover  the  deep 
meaning  of  the  injunction  of  the  text  to  put  off 
the  old  man  and  put  on  the  new.  We  see  that 
the  ultimate  goal  of  this  process  is  the  death  of 
the  old,  and  our  complete  investiture  with  that 


THE  OLD  MAN  AND  THE  NEW. 


128 


new  and  radiant  manhood  in  which  Christ  was 
raised.  We  have  already  said  that  this  involves 
no  change  in  personality.  We  put  off  the  one 
as  an  earthy  tabernacle  (2  Peter  i.  14),  and 
are  “  clothed  upon  with  our  house  which  is  from 
heaven.”  (2  Cor.  v.  2.)  And  yet  that  which  we 
put  off  or  on,  although  not  essential  to  our  person¬ 
ality,  is  essential  in  our  manhood.  For  man  is  not 
merely  a  spirit.  A  disembodied  spirit  would  not 
be  a  man.  Man  is  an  embodied  ima^e  of  God, 
holding  special  place  and  title  in  His  creation  in 
virtue  of  his  embodiment  in  it. 

Our  destiny,  then,  is  to  die  with  Christ  Out 
of  the  old  creation  and  live  again  with  Him  in 
the  new.  And  if  any  man  be  in  Christ,  the  new 
creation  is  in  him  begun.  (2  Cor.  v.  17.)  And 
therefore  the  process  of  the  crucifixion  of  the  flesh, 
with  its  affections  and  lusts,  has  begun.  Our  very 
calling,  the  first  principle  of  our  discipleship,  is 
that  we  consent  that  the  old  man  shall  be  crucified 
in  us.  The  Christ  nature  is  born  in  us  to  this  end. 
And  in  the  power  of  it  we  are  daily  to  put  off  the 
old  man,  by  mortifying  its  members,  denying  the 
lustful  clamors  of  its  flesh,  and  equally  the  proud 
ambitions  and  vain  desires  of  its  mind.  Every 
Christian  knows  something  of  this  process.  These 
dissatisfactions  with  an  earthly,  sensual  life,  these 
struggles  against  sin  and  the  low-born  tendencies 
of  an  evil  nature,  these  aspirations  after  God,  and 


124  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


purity,  are  the  working  in  us  of  this  Christ-life. 
But  few  Christians  realize  how  deep  is  this  pro¬ 
cess.  Jesus  leads  us  all,  as  He  led  the  first  disci¬ 
ples,  by  gentle  stages,  and  as  we  are  able  to  bear 
it,  into  the  full  meaning  of  this  mystery  of  the 
cross. 

And  yet  we  must  all  needs  learn  this  lesson.  It 
is  the  only  way  of  life,  the  only  path  of  peace.  The 
more  thoroughly  we  consent  to  the  death  of  the 
old  man  in  us,  the  greater  the  scope  and  freedom 
for  the  manifestation  of  the  life  of  the  new  man. 

This  passage  also  presses  home  upon  us  our 
responsibility  in  this  process.  Its  accompanying 
verses  specify  minutely  the  sins  to  which  the  old 
man  is  given, — lasciviousness,  uncleanness,  lying, 
stealing,  anger,  bitterness,  clamor,  evil  speaking, 
malice.  It  enumerates  some  of  the  manifest 
graces  of  the  new  man, — kindness,  honesty,  com¬ 
passion,  love,  forgiveness,  and,  as  comprehensive 
of  them  all,  these  characteristic  features,  “  right¬ 
eousness  and  true  holiness.”  We  are  called  to  act 
in  all  purity  of  motive  toward  God  and  in  righteous 
dealing  toward  man.  Yea,  more,  as  our  fellow-men 
are  burdened  and  cursed  with  a  sinful  nature  com¬ 
mon  to  us  all,  we  must  bear  with  their  ignorance 
and  folly,  be  helpful  to  their  weakness,  and  com¬ 
passionate  in  their  misery,  and  so  reflect,  in  our 
feeble  way,  upon  them  something  of  God’s  loving¬ 
kindness  toward  us. 


THE  OLD  MAN  AND  THE  NEW. 


125 


But  in  order  to  any  successful  suppression  of 
the  uprisings  of  the  old  man  in  us,  it  is  very  im¬ 
portant  that  we  recognize  that  our  true  standing 
and  life  are  now  in  Christ,  the  new  man.  In 
every  Christian  there  is  the  twofold  nature,  that 
which  is  born  of  Adam  and  that  which  is  born  of 
God.  The  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God  to  us  is, 
that  the  believer  on  Christ  enters  into  all  the 
benefits  of  the  judgment  against  our  old  nature  to 
which  He  submitted  on  the  cross.  In  God’s  view 
we  there  died  in  Him.  We  are  risen  with  Him. 
We  have  new  and  eternal  life  in  Him,  and  there¬ 
fore  we  are  transferred  out  of  the  old  category  of 
guilt  and  condemnation,  forgiven,  justified,  sanc¬ 
tified  in  Christ.  We  are  new  men  in  Him.  And 
with  this  new  and  triumphant  manhood  our  per¬ 
sonal  being,  in  God’s  view,  is  forever  identified. 
It  is  no  longer  “  I”  that  does  evil,  but  sin  that 
dwelleth  in  me.  (Rom.  vii.  20.)  The  old  man  is 
henceforth  but  a  dying  kernel  for  the  new.  In 
God’s  economy  it  is  necessary  that  it  remain  for  a 
while,  as  a  sort  of  calyx  and  shield,  a  place  of  ger¬ 
mination  and  struggle  and  growth,  of  aspiration 
and  of  training,  for  the  new  man.  In  this  view 
of  it,  it  is  not  to  be  despised  nor  maltreated,  as  bv 
the  old  ascetics.  That  which  is  natural  is  first, 
and  afterwards  that  which  is  spiritual.  It  is  to  be 
hereafter  rejected  as  chaff;  but  chaff  is  good  in  its 

place,  and  up  to  the  time  of  the  grain’s  maturity. 

11* 


126  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


And  yet  we  are  ever  to  remember  that  the  sen¬ 
tence  of  death  has  gone  out  against  the  old  man, 
and  that  our  calling  now  is  to  put  this  into  prac¬ 
tical  execution,  so  far  as  he  attempts,  in  any  way, 
to  regain  supremacy  over  our  conduct  or  opinions 
or  motives.  We  may  compel  him  to  do  us  abject 
service  in  our  endeavor  to  serve  God,  but  we  are 
always  to  keep  him  under  as  a  servant.  Never 
must  he  appear  as  master. 

And  this  suggests  to  us  that  we  need  specially 
to  guard  against  the  uprisings  of  the  old  man  in 
the  service  of  God.  It  is  here  that  the  devil  is 
ever  seeking  to  intrude  him,  in  order  that  he  may 
degrade  our  service,  which  can  please  God  only  as 
offered  by  the  new  man,  down  to  the  level  of  a 
fair  shew  in  the  flesh.  In  our  worship  this  old 
nature  is  ever  eager,  like  Nadab  and  Abihu,  to 
seize  the  censer  of  our  praise  and  prayers  and  offer 
them  with  strange  fire  before  the  Lord.  Like 
Dathan  and  Abiram,  it  is  ever  on  the  alert  to  stir 
up  rebellion  against  the  rule  of  the  Spirit,  through 
the  Lord’s  anointed  servants,  and  to  arrogate  to 
itself  their  prerogatives.  The  old  man  is  active 
in  our  churches,  in  our  assemblies  for  worship,  in 
our  ecclesiastical  councils.  He  puts  on  the  guise 
of  the  new  man ;  he  is  transformed  into  an  angel 
of  light,  and  in  this  character  he  comes  by  stealth 
into  the  church  of  God,  and  becomes  the  active 
manager  of  her  affairs,  her  finances,  her  holy  or- 


THE  OLD  MAN  AND  THE  NEW. 


127 


dinances.  He  even  raises  bis  voice  in  her  pulpits, 
and  brings  in  his  damnable  heresies,  beguiling 
unstable  souls  and  drowning  men  in  perdition. 

It  was  these  specious,  diabolical,  actings  of  the 
old  man  within  the  precincts  of  the  church  against 
which  the  New  Testament  epistles  give  special 
warning.  Already  she  had  begun  to  be  corrupted 
in  both  doctrine  and  practice  from  this  source. 
And  hence  the  careful,  solemn,  reiterated  teaching 
of  Paul  concerning  the  character  of  the  old  man, 
and  the  essential  need  in  the  Christian  life  and 
the  life  of  the  church  that  he  be  crucified.  He 
must  be  tracked  and  exposed  in  every  form  in 
which  he  trails  his  footsteps  within  this  hallowed 
sphere.  Alas  that  the  church  in  these  days  should 
heed  so  little  these  solemn  warnings  !  How  many 
Christians,  having  begun  in  the  spirit,  seek  to 
make  themselves  perfect  in  the  flesh.  How  many 
glory  in  appearance  and  not  in  heart.  How  many, 
forgetting  that  they  have  died  with  Christ  out  of 
this  old  life,  come  into  subjection,  as  though  they 
were  living  in  it,  to  ordinances,  such  as  touch  not, 
taste  not,  handle  not,  as  if  such  police  restraints 
upon  the  old  man  could  ever  build  up  the  life 
of  the  new.  And  how  many  come  back  into  bond¬ 
age  to  the  traditions  of  men  and  the  rudiments  or 
elements  of  the  world,  as  if  there  were  any  atmos¬ 
phere  here  for  the  new  man  to  breathe,  going  into 
associations  of  all  sorts,  in  which  these  rudiments 


128  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


are  the  accepted  principles,  and  mistaking  the 
nurture  thev  afford  for  the  old  man  for  the  culture 
of  the  new.  The  very  last  form  of  apostasy,  the 
Antichrist  himself,  will  be  the  old  man,  the  man 
of  nature,  tricked  off  in  the  garniture  of  the  new, 
assuming  to  be  reverenced  as  such,  sitting  in  the 
temple  of  God,  and  showing  himself  that  he  is 
God. 

Now,  our  only  guard  against  these  multiform 
betrayals  of  the  truth  and  these  cunning  counter¬ 
feits  of  the  Christ,  as  they  find  entrance  into  the 
church,  or  overspread  the  world  with  their  strong 
delusions,  is  to  faithfully  apply  the  truth  of  the 
text  to  our  own  lives.  We  must  search  ourselves, 
as  with  a  lighted  candle,  to  see  what  evil  ways 
there  be  in  us.  Every  man’s  heart  is  a  micro¬ 
cosm  of  the  world,  and  all  the  actings  of  human 
nature  in  the  world  around  us  are  germinally 
there.  And  not  only  for  our  own  safety  and  up¬ 
building  into  the  life  of  Christ,  but  for  the  salva- 
tion  of  our  fellow-men  and  their  guidance  into  the 
way  of  life,  we  must  detect  and  reject  the  dark, 
deceitful  ways  by  which  the  old  man,  which  God 
has  adjudged  to  death,  seeks  to  live  again  in  the 
whole  sphere  of  our  lives,  even  in  that  which  is 
spiritual,  and  by  which  he  endeavors  to  dictate 
and  strut  and  rule  even  in  the  church  of  God. 

We  have  thus  seen  that  the  putting  off  the  old 
man  is  a  far  deeper  thing  than  merely  correcting 


THE  OLD  MAN  AND  THE  NEW . 


129 


its  vices,  and  the  putting  on  the  new  is  a  higher 
thing  than  improving  the  old.  This  new  cloth 
cannot  be  patched  on  to  the  old.  We  need  a  new 
garment  altogether.  The  mistake  of  multitudes 
is  that  they  suppose  salvation  to  consist  in  a  mere 
pruning  off  the  vices  of  the  old  man.  The  gos¬ 
pel  of  amendment  and  culture  and  philanthropic 
sentiment  is  now  widely  preached  in  lieu  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  The  rejection  of  the  old  man 
includes,  indeed,  the  abandonment  of  its  vices. 
But  the  vital  feature  in  God’s  way  of  salvation  is 
the  consignment  of  the  old  man  to  death.  It  is 
never  assumed  that  he  can  be  radically  changed  or 
improved.  Hence  He  saves  by  raising  up  in  us 
the  new  man.  We  need  to  know  how  deep  and 
radical  is  this  salvation  of  which  we  are  the  subjects. 
We  need  to  stand  guard  against  that  ever-present, 
ever- recurring  and  subtle  error  of  the  Wicked 
One,  which  affirms  that  what  is  natural  must  be 
right.  This  monstrous  dogma  of  original  sin,  ex¬ 
claims  the  radical,  is  a  crime  against  nature  and 
against  manhood.  “We  have  a  right  to  indulge 
the  propensities  and  desires  which  God  Himself 
has  given.”  Such  fail  to  see  that  the  meaning  of 
this  present  world-system  is,  that  it  is  made  the 
training-ground  for  a  new  manhood,  which  alone 
is  worthy  to  enter  upon  the  possession  and  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  God’s  works,  and  that  we  rise  into  this 
rank  of  being  through  the  denial  and  ultimate 


130  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


death  of  the  old  nature.  And  the  calling  of  the 
Christian,  as  he  comes  in  contact  with  the  evil  of 
the  world,  and  as  he  learns  the  true  character  and 
end  of  his  dying  manhood  and  the  purity  and 
glory  of  the  new,  in  which  he  is  to  appear  and  in¬ 
herit  with  Christ,  is  to  mortify  his  members  which 
are  upon  the  earth,  and  to  set  his  affections  on 
things  above.  It  is  because  of  the  scope  and  far- 
reaching  issues  of  the  redeeming  work  wrought 
for  us  in  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  and 
which  is  now  being  wrought  out  in  us,  that  we  are 
urged  to  rid  ourselves  of  all  the  deformities  and 
vices  of  this  dying  manhood,  which  we  must  soon 
cast  off,  and  to  put  on,  by  anticipation,  the  graces 
and  virtues  of  that  new  manhood  in  the  glory  of 
which  we  shall  appear.  It  is  noteworthy  how  the 
several  epistles,  which  set  forth  these  deep  things 
of  God,  end  with  the  most  practical  and  minute 
directions  for  the  Christian’s  daily  temper  and 
conduct. 

We  may  get  from  this  subject  new  intelligence 
of  the  conflict  to  which  we  are  now  exposed. 
When  the  Spirit  informs  us,  as  in  the  next  chapter, 
that  we  wrestle  with  principalities  and  powers,  He 
describes  that  which  necessarily  results  from  the 
fact  that  we,  as  natural  men,  are  quickened  with 
that  life  which  is  now  contending  with  these 
powers  for  the  inheritance  of  the  universe.  And 
hence  the  conflict  comes  through  every  avenue 


THE  OLD  MAN  AND  THE  NEW. 


131 


and  tie  that  links  us  in  with  this  created  system. 
"Moreover,  we  need  to  be  warned  against  despon¬ 
dency,  if  our  progress  in  this  conflict  be  not  one 
perpetual  victory.  Young  Christians,  especially, 
are  apt  to  imagine,  in  the  first  flush  of  the  new 
life,  that  it  has  vanquished  forever  all  these  ene¬ 
mies;  whereas  they  have,  at  first,  little  idea  of  the 
scope  and  versatility  of  their  power.  The  flesh  is 
not  slain  in  us  at  one  stroke  and  once  for  all.  The 
roots  of  its  power  lie  deep.  Their  fibres  run 
through  the  soil  of  this  system  of  nature  and  hold 
us  in  bondage  to  it  by  cords  which  only  death  can 
fully  sever,  yea,  rather,  which  only  the  Lord  Jesus, 
descending  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  will  finally 
and  forever  break. 

We  need  also  to  be  warned  against  looking  for 
change  and  improvement  in  that  which  is  born  of 
the  flesh.  Our  calling  is  not  to  improve  the  old 
man,  but  to  put  it  off.  We  are  not  to  expect  any 
radical  change  in  it  for  the  better.  It  may  be 
toned  down  and  repressed.  The  new  man  may  be 
so  dominant  that  the  old  shall  be  abashed  and 
weakened.  We  would  put  no  limits  to  the  ex¬ 
tent  to  which  it  may  be  dethroned  and  mortified. 
The  Christian  may,  and  ought  to,  live  in  the 
Spirit.  But,  however  obscured  and  mastered,  its 
character  is  never  changed.  Nor  is  it  extinct.  It 
is  ready  to  seize  every  opportunity  for  outbreak 
and  rebellion.  There  are  two  irreconcilably  hos- 


132  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


tile  natures  in  every  Christian, — -that  which  is  born 
of  the  flesh  and  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit. 
The  flesh  cannot  become  spirit.  It  never  can 
learn  to  love  the  things  of  God.  It  must  gravi¬ 
tate  to  earthly  things,  for  its  tendencies  are  as  un¬ 
alterable  as  the  laws  of  nature,  to  whose  domain 
it  belongs.  But  it  can  be  disowned  and  put  off. 
The  temper  and  conduct  of  the  new  man  may  be 
put  on,  until  they  become  the  habit  of  the  life. 
This  is  now  our  calling,  as  preparatory  to  our 
destiny.  And  He,  who  hath  called  us  to  it,  is 
able  to  work  in  us  mightily  to  this  end,  above  all 
that  we  are  able  to  ask  or  to  think. 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY. 

I  beseech  you  therefore,  brethren ,  by  the  mercies  of  God , 
that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice ,  holy ,  acceptable 
unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service. — Romans  xii.  1. 

This  passage  is  often  misquoted.  The  word 
u  souls”  is  often  coupled  with  the  word  “  bodies.” 
But  this  insertion  weakens  the  force  of  the  passage, 
which  directly  exhorts  us  to  devote  our  bodies  to 
God’s  service. 

Even  the  similar  passage  in  1  Cor.  vi.  20, 
u  Therefore  glorify  God  in  your  body,  and  in 
your  spirit,”  is  corrected  in  the  Revised  Version. 
It  reads  simply,  “  Therefore  glorify  God  in  your 
body.” 

We  shall  now  consider,  first,  what  is  the  body; 
second,  what  place  does  it  hold  in  the  service  we 
render  to  God ;  and,  third,  how  may  we  offer 
through  it  such  service  as  is  here  described,  “a 
living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God.” 

At  first  sight  it  would  seem  to  be  a  simple  thing 
to  define  the  body.  And  yet  our  common  defi¬ 
nitions  are  made  from  but  a  single  point  of  view, 

and  are  therefore  partial.  The  anatomist,  the 

12  133 


134  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


scientist,  has  each  his  definition.  And  so  has  the 
undertaker.  It  is  easy  enough  to  define  the  body 
as  we  see  it.  It  is  that  animal  frame  built  np  of 
bones  and  flesh  and  blood,  with  its  parts  knit  to¬ 
gether,  its  organs  adjusted  to  their  functions,  and 
together  forming  the  perfect  figure  and  habitation 
of  a  man.  The  body  is  all  we  can  see  or  handle 
of  man.  And  yet  of  nothing  are  we  more  con¬ 
vinced  than  that  the  body  is  not  the  whole  of  us. 
There  is  something:  behind  and  distinct  from  the 
vital  frame  we  inhabit. 

Looking  further  into  the  constitution  of  these 
bodies  of  ours,  we  find  that  they  are  built  up  out 
of  the  materials  of  the  world,  the  same  gases  and 
minerals  that  compose  the  earth,  and  that  blaze  in 
the  fiery  vapors  of  the  sun  and  stars.  We  find 
that  they  are  sustained  and  animated  by  the  forces 
that  operate  in  this  realm  of  nature.  And  they 
are  the  depositories  and  batteries  of  these  forces. 
Indeed,  if  we  assume,  as  we  have  right  to  do,  that 
the  personality  of  man  resides  in  the  spirit,  his 
body  then  appears  to  be  that  which  gives  him  local 
habitation  and  name  in  this  universe.  It  brings 
him  into  relation  to  this  created  system.  It  is  his 
inlet  of  intelligence  concerning  it,  the  instrument 
by  which  he  acts  upon  it,  and  compels  its  sub¬ 
stances  and  forces  to  become  subservient  to  his 
use. 

Still  more  evident  is  it  that  it  is  our  present 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY. 


135 


channel  of  intercourse  and  communication  with 
the  world  of  mankind,  the  mass  of  embodied 
human  spirits  around  us.  By  means  of  these 
bodies  we  know  and  are  known  of  one  another. 
We  come  into  relations  of  intercourse  and  sym¬ 
pathy  with  our  fellow-men  through  the  magnetic 
touch  of  sense  with  sense,  the  grasp  of  hand  with 
hand. 

It  follows,  then,  that  the  place  the  body  holds  in 
the  service  we  render  to  God  is  that  of  the  in¬ 
dispensable  instrument.  Disembodied  ghosts  have 
no  sphere  of  action  in  this  present  world. 

But  here  the  question  arises,  Does  not  the 
Bible  teach  that  the  body  is  essentially  depraved, 
and  therefore  a  most  unworthy  instrument  for 
this  service?  The  reply  is  that  the  term  “  body’7 
in  Scripture  is  not  identical  with  the  term  “  flesh.” 
Flesh  defines  a  nature,  a  certain  inherent  organic 
disposition  of  the  substances  and  forces  that  enter 
into  man’s  being  toward  sin,  and  by  which  both 
body  and  mind  are  enslaved.  “  The  mind  of  the 
flesh  is  enmity  against  God.”  (Bom.  viii.  7,  R.  V.) 
Man’s  whole  nature,  as  built  up  out  of  the  sub¬ 
stances  and  forces  of  this  present  world,  has  come 
into  bondage  to  corruption.  And  his  body,  of 
course,  is  the  seat  of  this  infection.  And  hence 
it  must  die.  But  the  plan  of  God’s  salvation  pro¬ 
vides  for  the  quickening  of  men  with  a  new  and 
heaven-born  life  from  Christ.  This  new  birth 


136  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


is  first  in  the  region  of  the  spirit,  which  hence¬ 
forth  begins  to  reduce  the  disordered  elements  of 
man’s  being  to  its  sway.  The  directing  spirit  of 
man  has  lost  its  full  and  proper  control  over  these 
forces  that  operate  upon  and  through  our  bodies. 
Indeed,  these  forces  are  themselves  in  a  present 
condition  of  ferment  and  rebellion.  For  we  read 
that  the  whole  creation  is  in  bondage  to  corruption, 
and  that  the  restoring  reign  of  Christ  requires 
that  its  principalities  and  powers  be  brought  into 
such  subjection  to  His  sway,  as  shall  put  an  end 
to  this  wreck  of  sin  and  death,  both  in  the  bodies 
of  men  and  in  the  system  of  creation  to  which 
they  stand  related. 

But,  before  the  final  refashioning  and  redemp¬ 
tion  of  our  bodies,  we  are  left  in  this  world  to  be 
trained  for  warfare  and  dominion.  We  have  a 
regenerate  spirit  in  bodies  still  unredeemed.  Our 
schooling  and  trial  now  is  to  bring  into  control  to 
the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  which  we  have  in 
Christ  Jesus  the  members  of  our  bodies ;  to  master 
these  forces  of  which  they  are  the  depositories, 
and  which  are  none  other  than  the  mighty  forces 
that  move  through  the  realm  of  creation,  and  to 
subject  them  to  the  service  of  Christ.  Our  future 
exaltation  with  Him  requires  that,  in  this  realm 
where  we  are  now  the  born  slaves  of  sin  and  death, 
we  shall  become  masters.  But  before  we  rise  to 
complete  dominion  with  Him  we  are  trained  for 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY. 


137 


it  by  present  tutelage  and  conflict.  So  that  it 
enters  into  the  very  essence  of  our  discipline  that 
we  should  learn  to  keep  our  bodies  under. 

We  have  thus  seen  that  these  bodies  are  our 
present  instruments  of  service  to  God,  and  that 
our  calling  now  is  to  subject  them  to  this  service. 

Like  a  pilot  on  a  dangerous  sea  along  a  rocky 
coast,  with  here  and  there  a  lighthouse,  and  with 
the  winds  blowing  in  gusts  from  all  quarters  and 
the  billows  surging  beneath,  we  are  not  only  to 
guard  the  ship  with  its  precious  freight  from 
wreck,  but  to  catch  and  subsidize  these  riotous 
forces  of  wind  and  wave,  to  compel  them  to  keep 
us  afloat,  to  All  our  sails  and  waft  us  safely  home. 
These  lawless  elements  that  have  so  long  made 
havoc  of  man’s  nature,  subjecting  it  to  the  law  of 
sin  and  death  and  strewing  all  these  coasts  of  time 
with  the  stranded  bodies  of  men  and  even  with 
the  wrecks  of  proud  nations,  these  we  are  to  sub¬ 
jugate  and  direct  into  a  new  channel,  the  service 
of  God,  the  end  of  which  is  not  death,  but  whose 
fruit  is  unto  holiness  and  the  end  everlasting  life. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  pass  on  to  our  third 
and  more  practical  inquiry,  How  may  we  best 
make  this  living  sacrifice,  and  make  our  bodies 
the  ready  and  efficient  instruments  of  this  ser¬ 
vice  ? 

First,  we  must  recognize  that  our  bodies  now 

belong  to  God.  We  read  that  their  redemption  is 

12* 


138  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


future.  And  yet  they  are  now  Christ’s  purchased 
possession.  “  For  ye  are  bought  with  a  price; 
therefore  glorify  God  in  your  body.’'  They  are 
His,  not  only  because  He  shall  ransom  them  from 
the  grave,  but  in  that  they  are  now  the  casket 
which  enshrines  the  redeemed  spirit,  and  through 
which  alone  the  light  of  the  life  He  has  kindled 
in  us  can  shine  forth  in  this  dark  world.  God’s 
title  in  us  extends,  therefore,  over  the  whole  region 
of  our  physical  life,  so  that  through  it  all  our 
spirits  may  act  in  obedience  to  His  Spirit. 

And  hence  we  must  also  recognize  that  these 
bodies  are  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  “  which 
is  in  you,  which  ye  have  of  God,  and  ye  are  not 
your  own.”  We  have  seen  that  our  salvation 
essentially  begins  in  the  quickening  of  the  spirit 
with  new  life  from  the  ascended  Christ.  The 
great  mystery,  as  well  as  the  unspeakable  blessing 
of  the  gospel,  is  “Christ  in  you,  the  hope  of 
glory.”  That  presence  hallows  and  sanctities  these 
bodies.  And  not  only  so.  It  is  a  mighty,  all- 
subduing  power.  We  have  had  some  glimpses  of 
the  wide  extent  of  this  command,  “Present  your 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice,”  and  of  the  potent  forces 
to  be  overcome.  But  “  greater  is  He  that  is  in 
you  than  he  that  is  in  the  world.”  “  If  God  be  for 
us,  who  then  can  be  against  us?”  Or  what  mighty 
forces,  ranging  through  the  heights  and  depths  of 
creation, can  separate  us  from  His  love? 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY. 


139 


The  essential  element  of  success  in  this  duty, 
then,  is  the  recognition  of  our  present  relation  to 
God,  and  of  the  mighty  power  by  which  He  works 
for  us,  which  was  displayed  in  lifting  Jesus,  our 
brother  man  and  captain  of  our  salvation,  up  to 
headship  over  all  the  principalities  and  powers  of 
creation,  and  which  has,  even  now,  quickened  us 
together  with  Him,  and  stands  pledged  to  raise  us 
to  the  same  glorious  dominion.  And  although 
this  dominion  awaits  us  in  the  life  to  come,  we  are 
called  in  this  life  to  an  earnest  and  foretaste  of  it. 
These  lawless  forces,  that  oppress  and  hinder  us 
through  the  body,  may  now  be  subdued  to  the 
reign  of  the  Christ  in  us.  Witness  St.  Paul,  who 
declared  that  he  kept  his  body  under  and  brought 
it  into  subjection.  The  word  here  implies  the 
severest  mortification  and  self-restraint. 

And  this  throws  light  upon  the  question  of 
sanctification.  We  have  no  doubt  that  most  Chris¬ 
tians  take  far  too  low  views  of  what  the  grace  and 
power  of  God  can  accomplish  in  us,  and  that  our 
poor  success  is  but  proof  of  our  weak  faith  and 
imperfect  consecration.  And  yet  the  Word  of 
God  does  not  warrant  the  thought  that  the  com¬ 
plete  surrender  and  control  of  all  our  life-powers, 
of  which  Paul  speaks,  can  be  reached  by  a  single 
step.  Such  a  view  implies,  we  think,  a  previous 
short-sighted  view  of  the  depth  of  the  self-sacri¬ 
fice  required,  and  of  the  far-reaching  hostility  of 


I 


140  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 

these  life-forces  which  are  to  be  overcome  and 
tranquillized,  and  subdued  to  the  reign  of  Christ. 
It  must  never  be  forgotten,  and  this  some  excellent 
Christians  overlook,  that  it  enters  now  into  the 
very  marrow  of  our  discipline  in  this  life  that  the 
new  man  in  Christ  be  shut  up  in  a  depraved  and 
dying  tabernacle,  that  our  bodies  can  be  brought 
into  submission  to  the  behests  of  the  renewed 
spirit  only  by  vigorous  watchfulness  and  disci¬ 
pline,  and  that,  even  with  the  greatest  care  and 
restraint,  there  will  be  something  of  the  clumsiness 
and  taint  of  the  earthy  channel  in  all  the  ways  by 
which  the  new  life  flows  forth  from  us  and  seeks 
expression.  One  single  act  of  self-consecration, 
however  thorough  and  sincere,  cannot  do  away 
with  the  necessity  of**  life-long  consecration  and 
vigilance  and  progress  in  that  mastery  of  self 
whidh  shall  enable  us  always  to  glorify  God  in 
our  bodies,  and  to  bind  all  their  imperious  and 
lustful  appetites  to  the  horns  of  His  altar. 

And  this  leads  us  to  speak  further  of  the  care 
and  culture  of  the  body  as  a  Christian  duty.  We 
have  seen  that  there  is  a  sacredness  about  it,  in 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  has  condescended  to  make  it 
His  temple  and  to  employ  it  in  His  service.  We 
should,  therefore,  study  and  observe  the  laws  of 
health.  The  kingdom  of  God,  indeed,  is  not  meat 
and  drink.  It  is  not  a  system  of  dietetics.  Nor 
does  bodily  exercise  profit  anything  in  establishing 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY. 


141 


our  position  in  grace.  This  is  His  gift.  And 
yet,  called  into  His  family  and  to  His  kingdom 
and  glory,  we  have  already  seen  that  we  cannot 
serve  Him  efficiently  with  bodies  untrained,  dis¬ 
ordered,  and  rebellious.  Nor  is  a  sickly,  shattered 
body  the  best  kind  of  offering  to  lay  upon  His 
altar.  We  do  not  believe,  indeed,  that  sound 
physical  health  is  so  important  a  factor  in  our 
usefulness  as  is  often  claimed  in  these  days  of 
muscular  Christianity.  For  it  may  be  only  the 
vigor  of  the  natural  man,  who  receiveth  not  the 
things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  to  whom  they 
are  foolishness.  Paul,  we  judge,  had  an  insignifi¬ 
cant  bodily  presence,  and  a  painful  thorn  in  the 
flesh.  The  power  of  God  is  often  most  conspicuous 
where  infirmities  abound.  And  yet  Paul  made 
the  best  use  of  all  his  physical  powers.  He  did 
not  suffer  them  to  be  weakened  by  laziness  or  self- 
indulgence.  He  performed  prodigious  labors  with 
that  frail  body  of  his.  And  this  because  he  was 
temperate  or  self-controlled  in  all  things.  There 
is  a  vast  waste  of  physical  power  with  most  of  us. 
Vital  forces  are  exhausted  by  irritation  and  ex¬ 
citements,  by  excess  of  appetites  and  unregulated 
emotions  and  discontents,  which  the  reign  of  God’s 
peace  in  the  soul  would  quell.  And  then  there  is 
a  hurry  and  bustle  and  fussiness  about  much  of 
our  Christian  service  which  drains  our  resources, 
and  which  would  be  saved  if  we  were  calmly 


142  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


waiting  upon  God  for  opportunities  and  anxious  to 
do  only  His  will,  without  so  much  interference  and 
compulsion  to  make  things  go  to  suit  ourselves. 
This  sacrifice  of  the  body  requires,  therefore,  that 
we  take  the  best  care  of  it;  not  coddling  it  into 
inactivity  or  petting  it  into  feebleness  or  exhaust¬ 
ing  it  by  an  impetuosity  which  is  born  of  the  flesh 
and  not  uf  the  Spirit,  but  by  observing  the  laws 
of  its  health,  and  by  conserving  its  best  powers 
for  the  best  uses.  And  especially  are  we  called  to 
the  bridling  of  its  appetites.  The  heroes  of  faith, 
in  all  ages,  have  been  men  who  curbed  appetite. 
We  have  referred  to  Paul  as  an  eminent  example. 
The  strong  men  of  the  early  ages  of  Christianity 
were  made  so  by  self-denial,  what  we  call  asceti¬ 
cism.  It  is  true  that  errors  crept  in  to  distort 
their  notions  of  bodily  restraint  and  to  sway  them 
from  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel  of  God’s  grace. 
But  still,  their  mastery  of  the  body  enabled  them 
to  be  martyrs  where  we  are  but  feeble  witnesses. 
Paul  was  no  ascetic  in  the  technical  sense.  And 
yet  he  was  in  fastings  often.  And  still  is  it  true 
that  no  man  can  present  his  body  as  a  living  sac¬ 
rifice  to  God  who  cannot  control  his  eating  and 
drinking,  and  so  allows  his  spiritual  nature  to  be 
clogged  and  dulled  by  indulgences  at  table  which 
do  not  minister  to  his  strength,  but  which  simply 
gratify  his  palate  and  load  up  his  stomach,  the 
laboratory  of  the  life-forces  he  must  use  in  God’s 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY. 


143 


service,  with  work  it  cannot  properly  perform. 
And  so  with  every  other  carnal  appetite  and  lust. 
Some  of  these  are  especially  sins  against  the  body, 
disqualifying  it  for  the  Master’s  use. 

And  the  distempers,  engendered  in  this  lower 
region  of  man’s  nature  by  excess,  stimulate  also 
those  vices  of  the  mind  which  equally  waste  and 
disorder  the  life.  Pride,  envy,  malice,  covetous¬ 
ness,  vain  ambitions,  these  also  irritate  and  unchain 
and  unbalance  and  so  dissipate  the  powers  of  the 
soul,  which  ought  to  be  harmonized  to  the  will  of 
Christ  and  employed  in  His  service. 

And  here  we  may  speak  a  word  of  caution 
against  that  inertia  into  which  we  are  apt  to  fall, 
and  which  especially  defeats  the  whole  idea  of 
Christian  service  as  a  living  sacrifice. 

The  constant  tendency  of  man’s  physical  nature 
is  to  gravitate  into  sloth  and  sluggishness  and  con¬ 
sequent  enfeeblement  of  health.  This  tendency 
is  resisted  by  activity.  Hence  the  value  of  work 
as  a  means  of  grace.' 

We  need  to  stand  guard  against  and  beat  back 
that  languor  and  debility  which  are  the  result  of 
a  want  of  proper  employment  of  our  life-powers, 
and  especially  in  God’s  service.  There  is  no  elixir 
of  life  for  the  body  like  the  presence  in  it  of  God’s 
Spirit.  This  is  His  saving  health.  This  is  the 
joy  of  the  Lord  which  is  our  strength.  It  is  just 
at  this  point  that  Satan  seeks  to  defeat  the  pur- 


144  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


pose  of  our  calling,  by  oppressing  in  us  this  new  life 
from  God  which  can  vivify  us  in  body  as  well  as 
soul,  and  which  certainly  should  overcome  that 
heaviness  which  so  clogs  the  spiritual  life,  and 
makes  so  many  Christians  dead  lumber  in  the 
house  of  God  where  they  ought  to  be  “  living 
stones.” 

And  this  leads  us  to  speak  further  of  the  duty 
of  standing  guard  at  all  the  inlets  and  outlets  of 
our  life  in  the  body  against  the  invisible  enemies 
of  our  salvation.  Man’s  physical  nature  has  long 
been  a  tramping-ground  for  these  enemies.  Satan 
and  evil  spirits  enter  into  men  now  as  truly  as  in 
the  days  of  Judas  and  Ananias.  The  prince  of 
the  power  of  the  air  is  still  the  spirit  that  worketh 
in  the  children  of  disobedience.  (Eplies.  ii.  2.) 
Our  bodily  appetites,  our  mental  cravings  and 
emotions,  are  all  inlets  at  which  these  enemies  may 
enter.  Around  all  the  weak  points  of  the  fortress 
the  enemy  prowls.  We  have  seen  that  our  con¬ 
flict  is  essentially  a  fight  for  tile  prize  of  inheritance 
and  dominion  in  this  vast  system  of  God’s  works. 
Our  success  involves  the  overthrow  of  the  kino-- 
dom  of  darkness,  and  the  advancement  of  a  new 
race  of  kings  and  priests  in  embodied  immortality 
on  to  the  throne  of  power.  It  is  a  life-struggle, 
therefore,  which  provokes  Satan  to  great  rage,  for 
his  time  is  short.  And  God’s  word  is  forever 
settled  in  heaven  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  shall 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY. 


145 


bruise  the  serpent’s  head.  This  offering  of  our 
bodies,  then,  upon  God’s  altar  enters  into  the  very 
heart  of  that  conflict  against  principalities  and 
powers  about  which  Paul  writes,  and  during  which 
he  exhorts  us  so  earnestly  to  stand  fast,  girt  with 
the  whole  armor  of  God. 

And  let  us  never  forget  that,  great  as  is  this 
conflict,  they  that  be  for  us  are  more  than  they 
that  be  against  us.  Jesus  is  our  Forerunner  in  it 
all.  In  a  body  like  ours,  He  offered  unto  the 
Father  the  sacrifice  of  a  perfect  human  life.  He, 
through  fierce  temptations,  in  which  He  agonized 
unto  blood,  subdued  and  held  captive  all  these 
warring  elements  of  which  man’s  nature  is  the 
seat  and  bound  them  forever  to  His  throne.  And, 
through  death,  He  gave  the  death-wound  to  him 
who  hath  power  over  them  all.  He  rescued  our 
nature,  body  and  spirit,  from  his  fatal  dominion 
and  raised  it  to  the  right  hand  of  power  in  the 
heavens.  And  now  He  is  the  Friend  and  Brother, 
the  sympathetic  High-Priest  to  every  man  who 
desires  a  like  deliverance  and  trusts  Him  for 
it. 

And  let  no  man  imagine  that  because  this  is 
the  path  of  restraint  and  self-denial,  it  may  be 
of  harsh  discipline,  that  it  is  therefore  a  way  of 
sorrow  and  gloom.  Bough  though  this  path  may 
be,  it  opens  out,  even  in  this  world,  into  new  and 
glad  regions  of  life.  For  it  is  the  carnal  mind 
G  Jc  13 


146  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


which  is  death.  While  to  be  spiritually-minded 
is  even  now  life  and  peace.  And  beyond,  this 
path  opens  out  into  regions  of  unclouded  light, 
of  everlasting  dominion  and  fulness  of  joy. 


2CI. 


PHYSICAL  SALVATION. 

Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other  ;  for  there  is  none 
other  name  under  heaven ,  given  among  men ,  whereby  we 
must  be  saved. — Acts  iv.  12. 

Upon  the  day  of  Pentecost  the  apostles  had 
been  endowed  with  power  from  on  high.  They 
immediately  began  to  testify  to  the  fact  that  God 
had  raised  from  the  dead  the  crucified  Jesus,  and 
to  press  home  upon  the  consciences  of  the  Jewish 
leaders  their  guilt  in  putting  Him  to  death,  and 
their  responsibility  now  to  repent  and  to  submit  to 
the  risen  Messiah. 

Th  is  bold  testimony  was  confirmed  by  signs 
from  God,  one  of  the  most  notable  of  which  was 
the  healing  of  an  impotent  man,  lame  from  his 
birth.  In  response  to  the  word  of  life  spoken  by 
Peter,  he  received  the  touch  of  life  from  the  risen 
Jesus  and  was  healed. 

Let  us  now  inquire  into  the  meaning  and  scope 
of  that  salvation  of  which  this  impotent  man  was 
the  subject.  The  bodily  condition  of  this  man 
illustrates  the  spiritual  condition  of  all  men.  He 
was  lame  from  his  birth.  “  Behold/ ”  says  the 

147 


148  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


Psalmist,  “  I  was  conceived  in  sin  and  shapen  in 
iniquity.”  Men  are  morally  lame  from  their  birth. 
And  as  to  the  spiritual  side  of  their  nature,  Scrip¬ 
ture  pronounces  them  “dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins.”  They  are  out  of  right  relation  to  God. 
And  as  He  is  the  source  of  all  life  and  blessedness, 
the  life  of  men,  under  these  conditions,  must  be 
disordered  and  diseased.  There  must  be  spiritual 
imbecility  and  diseased  mortal  bodies.  This  man’s 
malady  was  the  result  of  sin  ;  if  not  his  own  sin, 
then  that  of  his  ancestors,  for  the  defect  was  con¬ 
genital.  And  the  healing  which  came  to  him  was 
of  both  soul  and  body.  He  walked  and  leaped 
and  praised  God. 

It  is  plain  that  many  of  the  instances  of  spiritual 
blessing  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament  were 
accompanied  by  physical  healing.  The  word  of 
healing  was  sometimes,  “  Thy  sins  be  forgiven 
thee.”  Peter,  before  Cornelius,  described  the  sav¬ 
ing  ministry  of  Jesus  in  this  way,  “He  went  about 
doing  good  and  healing  all  that  were  oppressed  of 
the  devil.”  Paul,  when  about  to  heal  an  impotent 
man  at  Lystra,  perceived  that  “  he  had  faith  to  be 
saved.”  (Acts  xiv.  9,  P.  V.  margin.) 

Without  doubt  the  apostles  regarded  the  risen 
Jesus,  and  presented  Him  to  their  hearers,  as  the 
source  of  a  new  life-power  to  men,  a  regenerating, 
healing  power,  reaching  not  only  to  the  springs  of 
spiritual  but  of  physical  life.  And  for  aught  we 


PHYSICAL  SALVATION. 


149 


know,  these  springs  are  one  fountain  and  not 
separate.  We  are  accustomed  to  regard  the  physi¬ 
cal  effects  of  salvation,  as  seen  in  this  case,  as 
merely  the  signs  or  proofs  of  a  supernatural 
spiritual  healing.  But  they  are  more  than  simply 
signs ;  they  are  also  effects.  Such  a  view  as  this 
gives  a  far  truer  idea  of  our  necessity  as  needing 
salvation,  and  of  how  fully  our  need  has  been  met. 
Wre  say  a  man  needs  to  be  saved.  What  does  this 
mean?  Is  it  merely  that  he  is  in  danger  of  future 
punishment,  or  that  his  moral  condition  is  such  as 
to  unfit  him  for  future  happiness?  It  means  this 
indeed,  bat  more  also.  It  means  that  the  very 
sources  of  life  in  the  man  have  been  impaired 
and  defiled.  Hence  its  development  has  been 
away  from  God  and  out  of  harmony  with  His 
eternal  laws.  “All  sin  is  lawlessness”  writes 
St.  James.  And  hence  there  is  disorder  and  ex¬ 
cess  and  irritation,  and  sometimes  frenzy,  among 
our  life-forces.  There  are  spiritual  vices,  such  as 
pride  and  selfishness  and  envy.  And  there  are 
disordered  physical  cravings,  carnal  lusts  that  war 
against  both  soul  and  body.  So  that  diseases  and 
bad  tempers  and  derangements  in  the  body  are  just 
as  truly  the  fruit  of  sin  as  vices  of  the  mind. 
They  are  alike  the  result  of  a  disordered  life. 
Something  is  wrong  in  the  vital  constitution  of 
man,  in  his  original  life-endowment.  And  there¬ 
fore  no  remedy  can  reach  the  case  short  of  a  new 


150  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


endowment.  When  the  apostles  spoke  to  men  of 
Jesus  as  the  Prince  of  life,  whom  God  had  raised 
from  the  dead,  they  meant  to  declare  that  God 
had  now  opened  a  new  fountain  of  life  and  heal¬ 
ing  for  mankind ;  one  that  was  to  affect  us  not  only 
by  spiritual  impressions  upon  the  mind,  but  as  a 
new  stream  of  life,  flowing  from  the  throne  of  God 
and  of  the  Lamb,  through  the  whole  region  of  our 
lives.  Hence  it  was  inevitable  that  this  new  life- 
power  should  demonstrate  its  energy  in  the  region 
of  the  body  also.  Such  bodily  healing  as  that  of 
this  impotent  man  was  a  more  powerful  result 
than  that  ordinarily  witnessed.  And  yet  it  differed 
in  degree  and  not  in  kind  from  the  blessings  in 
which  all  believers  shared. 

All  this  is  more#  apparent  when  we  consider 
further  that  bodily  disorders  are  uniformly  viewed 
in  the  New  Testament  as  manifestations  of  “the 
power  of  the  enemy.”*  We  are  but  little  aware 
how  deep  and  wide-spread  is  that  malign  power 
which  God,  for  the  wise  ends  of  our  training  for 
the  dignities  of  an  eternal  life,  has  suffered  Satan 
to  usurp  in  this  created  system.  And  hence  we 
know  little  of  the  far-reaching  range  of  that  con¬ 
flict  in  which  we  are  now  engaged  with  the  ruler  of 
this  world’s  darkness.  The  lines  of  this  warfare 
reach  down  to  the  foundations  of  our  physical  as 


*  See  page  89. 


PHYSICAL  SALVATION. 


151 


well  as  our  moral  nature.  And  therefore  the 
salvation  which  meets  the  case  is  constantly  spoken 
of  as  a  work  of  "new  creation  A 

The  practical  end  of  this  discussion  is  to  urge 
upon  the  attention  of  Christians  an  aspect  of 
Christ’s  saving  work  which  is  often  overlooked. 
We  seem  to  think  that  God’s  "saving  health”  is 
for  the  region  of  the  soul,  but  that  He  can  or  will 
do  nothing  for  us  in  the  region  of  the  body.  But 
we  are  bold  to  say  that  any  salvation  which  does 
not  make  itself  felt  in  the  region  of  the  body,  as 
well  as  of  the  spirit,  can  never  meet  our  case. 
The  fetters  that  bind  men  to  sin  are  no  less  phy¬ 
sical  than  moral.  The  law  of  sin  which  is  in  our 
members  is  in  the  members  of  the  body.  I  look 
over  any  Christian  congregation  and  ask  myself, 
What  are  the  hindrances  to  the  spiritual  life  in 
these  persons?  I  may  be  told  that  some  are  ab¬ 
sorbed  in  money-making,  others  in  the  pleasures 
of  life,  and,  in  general  terms,  that  they  are  too 
much  taken  up  with  the  things  of  the  world.  All 
true,  so  far  as  it  goes.  But  the  story  is  not  all 
told.  I  find  that  some  are  the  slaves  of  bodily 
appetite,  and  others  are  clogged  and  weighed 
down  with  some  form  of  physical  infirmity.  With 
some,  dyspepsia  or  a  torpid  liver  beclouds  their 
sky  and  keeps  them  spiritless  and  gloomy.  Others 
have  disorder  of  nerves.  Some  are  vexed  with 
an  irascible  temper.  A  large  proportion  of  sol- 


152  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


diers  in  the  Christian  army  are  thus  in  hospital, 
or  otherwise  hors  clu  combat ,  disabled  for  warfare 
or  work  by  some  kind  of  infirmity  ;  it  may  be  one 
that  is  constitutional  or  hereditary.  But,  because 
the  maladies  which  disable  them  are  physical,  they 
regard  themselves  as  excused.  They  deem  it  in¬ 
evitable  that  they  must  succumb.  They  are  thus 
defeated  by  the  enemy,  and  know  not  that  lie  has 
overcome  them,  because  he  has  assailed  them  along 
the  channels  of  the  body,  and  with  physical  weap¬ 
ons.  They  never  imagine  that  he  can  have  any¬ 
thing  to  do  with  the  liver  or  the  nerves. 

And  yet  the  fact  is  that  it  is  through  these  very 
avenues  of  the  body  he  finds  entrance.  In  these 
very  ways  he  entangles  and  imprisons  and  impov¬ 
erishes  the  spiritual  life.  Sin,  be  it  remembered, 
is  the  disorder  of  the  life.  It  disorganizes  and 
degrades  life  in  all  its  functions.  Its  effects,  there¬ 
fore,  are  as  truly  apparent  in  the  body  as  in  the 
mind.  And  new  life  from  the  Spirit  of  God 
must  give  energy  and  buoyancy  through  the  whole 
region  of  man’s  life.  How,  otherwise,  can  we 
present  our  bodies  unto  God  as  living  sacrifices, 
and  our  members  as  instruments  of  righteousness 
to  bring  forth  fruit  unto  Him  ?  The  truth  is,  un¬ 
less  the  Holy  Spirit  bless  me  with  His  healing, 
invigorating  power  in  this  region,  as  well  as  in 
spirit,  then  my  case  is  only  half  met.  It  is  among 
the  life-forces  of  which  my  body  is  the  home  and 


PHYSICAL  SALVATION. 


153 


the  organ  that  sin  has  bred  anarchy,  and  they 
must  be  subdued  to  His  sway,  if  I  am  to  be  of  use 
in  His  service.  In  the  case  of  an  inebriate,  for 
example,  his  shattered  and  debased  life-powers 
must  be  subdued  and  tranquillized  and  reorganized 
around  a  new  centre. 

Now  this  is  precisely  the  salvation  given  us  in 
Christ.  He  is  the  new  Lord  of  life.  We  get  a 
new  spirit  of  life  from  Him,  a  new  life  endow¬ 
ment,  stronger  than  the  old  life  of  sin,  and  able  to 
subdue  all  the  faculties  and  functions  of  our  being 
to  itself.  u  He  forgiveth  all  our  sins  and  healeth 
all  our  diseases.” 

We  are  to  recognize,  indeed,  that  the  complete 
redemption  of  the  body  will  be  effected  only 
through  its  resurrection  from  the  dead.  Its  final 
triumph  over  infirmities  and  disease  will  come 
only  through  its  final  triumph  over  death.  And 
yet  we  have  now  the  first  fruits  and  earnest  of 
that  triumph.  This  miracle  of  healing  was  such 
an  earnest.  And  so,  also,  was  the  increased  buoy¬ 
ancy  and  gladness  which  characterized  the  first 
converts  to  Christianity,  and  of  which  there  are 
many  illustrations  in  our  own  times.  In  the  Cor¬ 
inthian  church,  where  there  were  many  who  were 
weak  and  sickly,  this  state  of  things  is  spoken  of 
as  a  mark  of  God’s  disfavor,  a  chastisement  for 
their  sins  at  the  Lord’s  table.  This  implies  that 
weakness  and  sickliness  are  evils  which  it  was 


154  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


expected  that  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  a 
man  would  overcome.  I  do  not  say  prevent  or 
always  remove,  but  overcome.  Paul  seems  to  have 
been  much  tried  with  physical  infirmities.  He  had 
a  serious  one,  a  thorn  in  the  flesh.  But  he  was 
not  overborne  by  them.  He  did  not  suffer  them 
to  tie  his  hands  or  to  put  him  to  bed.  The  power 
of  Christ  in  him  triumphed  over  all  invalidity  or 
weariness  or  pain,  and  nerved  him  to  an  endurance 
of  labor  and  fatigue  and  hardship  such  as  to  make 
his  life  a  marvel  of  the  ages. 

This  is  what  we  mean  when  we  say  that  the 
salvation  of  Christ  is  meant  to  bless  the  whole 
man.  It  is  a  thing  of  broader  scope  than  most  of 
us  imagine.  On  this  account  we  should  at  least 
give  a  candid  hearing,  if  not  credence,  to  those 
instances  of  bodily  healing  in  answer  to  prayer, 
of  which  well-attested  reports  come  to  us.  We 
cannot,  with  the  New  Testament  before  us,  deny 
that  such  things  are  included  in  the  scope  of  that 
salvation  which  Jesus  has  brought  to  men.  Its 
power  must  extend  over  all  the  ills  of  life,  either 
to  remove  them  or  to  enable  us  to  triumph  in  and 
over  them.  We  ought  to  be  no  more  willing  to  be 
enslaved  by  these  than  by  vicious  habits.  I  do 
not  say  that  it  is  promised  that  we  shall  escape 
them.  They  are  now  a  part  of  the  appointed 
tribulation  through  which  we  must  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God,  inasmuch  as  they  enter  vitally 


PH  YSICA  L  SA  L  VA  TION. 


155 


into  our  conflict  with  the  prince  of  this  world.* 
But  it  is  promised  that  they  shall  not  capture  us, 
nor  sink  us  down  into  inertia  and  despondency. 
“  For  God  hath  not  given  us  a  spirit  of  fear,  but 
of  power  and  of  love  and  of  a  sound  mind.” 

The  view  that  we  have  taken  of  salvation,  there¬ 
fore,  is  that  it  is  the  renewal  of  man’s  life,  now 
blighted  and  disordered  bv  sin,  and  that  its  effects 
must  be  apparent  in  the  whole  region  of  that 
life,  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  Even  our  mortal 
bodies  are  quickened  or  vivified  by  the  Spirit 
that  dwelleth  in  us. 

Such  being  the  nature  of  that  salvation  which 
man  needs,  it  follows  that  only  divine  power  can 
effect  it.  This  alone  can  reach  the  seat  of  life  and 
renew  it  at  its  sources.  This  alone  can  bind  and 
cast  out  its  enemies.  And  therefore  we  are  pre¬ 
pared  for  the  announcement  of  the  text,  that  there 
is  salvation  in  no  other  name  than  the  name  of 
Jesus.  The  meaning  of  that  name  is  “  Jehovah 
will  save.”  That  is  the  mystery  of  Christ’s  per¬ 
son.  He  is  Emmanuel,  God  with  us.  In  a  mys¬ 
terious  way  God,  in  Him,  has  taken  hold  of  our 
nature.  He  became  our  brother-man,  bore  our 
sicknesses,  was  tempted  with  all  our  infirmities, 
subjected  Himself  to  death,  and  so  was  made  in 
all  things  like  unto  His  brethren.  All  the  hidden 


*  See  page  98. 


156  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


workings  of  the  life-forces  that  operate  in  us  have 
been  explored  and  experienced  by  Him.  He 
measured  the  lowest  deep  of  our  need.  And 
through  this  whole  region  Pie  passed  a  conqueror. 
In  dying,  He  won  the  victory  over  death.  And, 
in  resurrection,  He  exalted  our  nature,  redeemed, 
purified,  immortalized  to  the  right  hand  of  God. 
And  so  He  has  become  the  Fountain-head  of  a 
redeemed  humanity,  of  a  new  and  eternal  life 
for  men.  And  He  is  the  only  source,  the  only 
name  in  heaven  or  on  earth  by  which  we  must  be 
saved.  We  have  but  one  Captain  in  this  matter, 
the  only  One  who  has  fought  this  fight  and  won 
this  crown  and  received  these  gifts  for  men.  And 
His  is  a  mighty  name.  We  have  been  taking  low 
and  limited  views  of  it.  We  have  thought  of  its 
power  as  restricted  to  only  one  region  of  our  dis¬ 
eased  life,  not  daring  to  believe  that  it  could  guard 
the  whole  vulnerable  region  of  the  life  of  the  body, 
not  discerning  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  Him 
to  protect  us  in  one  region  unless  He  guard  us  also 
in  the  other.  What  capable  commander  would 
leave  one-half  of  his  line  of  battle,  and  that  the 
most  vulnerable  half,  undefended?  Surely  this  is 
no  just  conception  of  that  power  which  worketh 
in  us,  and  which  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly 
above  all  that  we  are  able  to  ask  or  to  think. 

We  have  not  claimed  in  this  discourse  that  we 
are  to  expect  Him  to  work  in  us  such  constant 


PH  YSIGA  L  SA  L  VA  TION. 


157 


miracle  as  that  we  shall  never  get  sick  or  weary  or 
feel  the  burden  of  the  manifold  infirmities  that 
flesh  is  heir  to.  Paul  was  not  exempt  from  these. 
Jesus  bore  them  all.  But  we  have  claimed,  and 
ought  to  claim,  that  He  who  triumphed  over  them 
all,  and  who  now  works  in  us  mightily,  or  would 
so  work  if  we  would  trust  Him  and  obey  Him,  is 
able  to  give  us  the  same  victory,  so  that  they  shall 
not  prove  hindrances  to  our  spiritual  life  and  peace 
and  fruitful  service,  but  even  helps,  occasions,  as 
in  Paul’s  case,  for  the  more  manifest  display  of 
His  grace  and  power. 


14 


2CII. 


WHAT  IS  ETERNAL  LIFE? 

In  hope  of  eternal  life ,  which  God ,  that  cannot  lie ,  prom¬ 
ised  before  the  world  began. — Titus  i.  2. 

We  propose  to  institute  an  inquiry  into  the 
nature  of  the  blessing  here  promised.  The  most 
frequent  and  definite  statement  of  the  boon  held 
out  to  men  in  the  gospel  by  Jesus,  and  afterwards 
by  His  apostles,  is  in  this  phrase,  “  eternal  life.” 

The  word  “  everlasting  life”  occurs  but  once  in 
the  Old  Testament  (Daniel  xii.  2),  where  it  is 
connected  with  the  promised  resurrection  of  some 
of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth.  It 
occurs  in  the  New  Testament  nearly  fifty  times, 
and  many  more  times  by  implication.  We  are 
safe  in  calling  it  the  distinctive  promise  of  the 
gospel.  “  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave 
His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
on  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life.” 

What  is  the  nature  of  this  promise?  Specially 
we  would  inquire,  Is  the  gift  of  eternal  life  through 
Jesus  Christ  a  perpetuation  of  this  present  gift  of 
life,  or  is  it  a  gift  of  a  higher  order  ? 

IAS 


WHAT  IS  ETERNAL  LIFE? 


159 


It  would  be  presumptuous  in  any  man  to 
attempt  to  tell  what  life  is.  Science  has  been 
pursuing  the  secret  with  microscope  and  scalpel, 
and  tracing  its  footsteps  backward  along  the  ages. 
And  yet  she  cannot  cross  the  border-line  of  this 
mystery.  All  we  know  is,  that  it  is  from  God, 
the  Fountain  of  all  life.  Science  and  Scripture 
unite  in  affirming  that  it  is  closely  connected  with 
this  system  of  creation.  Some  scientific  philoso¬ 
phers  seek  to  convince  us  that  this  system  fur¬ 
nishes  from  within  itself  the  substratum  and  the 
potency  of  every  form  of  life.  And  yet  con¬ 
fessedly  they  have  never  penetrated  to  the  origin 
of  life.  Their  conjectures,  therefore,  are  worth 
nothing  alongside  of  the  Bible  declaration  that 
“  the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself,”  and  that  from 
Him  all  things  live.  But  He  has  made  nature  to 
be  the  soil  upon  which  life  grows  and  is  nurtured. 
It  is  the  arena  upon  which  it  performs  its  functions 
and  puts  forth  its  energies.  It  is  the  domain  it 
seeks  to  subsidize  for  its  uses  and  fully  possess. 

And  hence  we  observe  that  all  life  in  this  sys¬ 
tem  of  nature  seeks  embodiment.  A  body  is 
necessary  in  order  to  bring  created  life  into  con¬ 
nection  with  and  dominion  over  God’s  works. 
Our  bodies  are  centres  of  the  forces  that  play 
through  this  created  system  ;  batteries  by  means 
of  which  they  are  stored  up  for  our  use.  I  am 
persuaded  that  in  our  prevalent  conceptions  of  the 


160  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


gift  of  life  we  depreciate  embodiment.  We.  infer, 
from  Scripture,  that  it  is  the  only  form  of  created 
life  that  can  possess  and  enjoy  our  Father’s  vast 
estate.  Hence  the  importance  of  that  cardinal 
doctrine  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Resurrection. 
Even  He,  in  whom  creation  was  headed  up  from 
the  beginning,  became  embodied.  And  in  Him 
the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  now  dwells  bodily. 
Evil  spirits  appear  to  be  the  outcasts  from  this 
system.  Hence  Scripture  gives  no  instance  of  the 
appearance  of  embodied  evil  spirits,  except  as 
they  steal  into  and  possess  themselves  of  other 
persons’  bodies.  They  even  prefer  swine  to  being 
disembodied.  On  the  other  hand,  in  all  the  in¬ 
stances  in  which  good  beings  from  the  unseen 
world  appear  to  men,  there  was  a  visible  form. 

Looking  now  at  the  teachings  of  science  and  of 
revelation  concerning  the  progress  of  creation,  we 
find  that,  from  the  beginning,  the  Creator  has 
been  preparing  it  to  be  the  domain  of  embodied 
life.  We  find  an  ascending  series  of  created  forms, 
from  plants  and  creeping  things,  until  the  whole 
is  headed  up  in  man,  made  in  the  image  of  God. 
The  account  in  Genesis  is  not  inconsistent  with, 
and  is,  perhaps,  best  explained  by  the  supposition 
that  there  was  a  lower  form  of  human  life  on  the 
earth  before  Adam.  We  are  not  precluded  even 
from  supposing  that  man,  as  to  his  animal  nature, 
is  an  evolution  from  the  lower  forms  of  life.  But 


WHAT  IS  ETERNAL  LIFE? 


161 


Adam  was  the  first  creation  of  man  with  a  spir¬ 
itual  nature,  capable  of  knowing  God  and  of  im¬ 
mortality  through  union  in  life  with  Him. 

Adam  was  a  grand  step  upward  in  the  ascend¬ 
ing  series  of  life.  But  our  present  inquiry  is, 
Has  the  Creator  taken  the  last  step  in  this  advance 
of  life  on  to  the  platform  of  His  works?  We 
reply,  No.  Adam  was  an  earthy  man,  made  capa¬ 
ble  of  eternal  life.  But  he  lost  this  great  boon  by 
disobedience.  Indeed,  it  was  never  intended  that 
he  should  attain  and  hold  it  for  himself  and  his  pos¬ 
terity.  The  casket  of  his  manhood  was  too  frail 
for  such  a  treasure,  his  hand  too  weak  for  such 
a  sceptre.  It  was  in  the  mind  of  God  from  the 
beginning  of  creation  to  produce  on  its  platform  a 
divine  man,  immortal  in  his  own  nature,  as  the 
completed  image  of  Himself,  and  worthy  to  wear, 
as  His  representative,  the  crown  of  this  created 
system.  The  first  man  was  but  a  mortal,  corrupti¬ 
ble  image  of  the  invisible  God,  a  perishable  model 
in  clay  of  the  noble  image  in  the  mind  of  the 
Divine  Artist,  which  was  to  hereafter  stand  on  the 
summit  of  creation  and  wear  its  crown. 

The  incarnation,  therefore,  was  another  step  in 
the  ascending  series  of  creation,  the  birth  into  it 
of  a  heavenly  man.  But  not  the  final  step,  as  is 
assumed  in  much  of  the  Christian  thinking  of 
the  day.  Its  highest  exponents,  as,  for  example, 

Joseph  Cook,  do  not  avoid  this  error  of  making 
l  14* 


162  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


the  incarnation  the  climax  of  creation.  It  can  be 
shown  that  this  is  a  subtle  point  of  departure  from 
the  faitli  once  delivered  to  the  saints.  The  resur¬ 
rection  of  Jesus  in  the  form  of  glorified  manhood  ; 
that  was  the  culmination  of  all  God’s  wondrous 
working  in  creation  along  the  ages.  To  stop  short 
of  this,  to  view  the  incarnation  otherwise  than  as 
in  order  to  the  resurrection,  is  only  to  know  Christ 
Jesus  after  the  flesh,  whereas  we  are  henceforth  to 
know  Him  in  this  character  no  more.*  It  is  to 
forget  that  if  any  man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a  new 
creation.  The  newly  created  immortal  man,  the 
perfect  image  of  the  invisible  God,  was  brought 
to  view  when  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead.  The  ideal 
manhood  which  had  been  the  primeval  thought 
of  God  and  the  goal  of  His  creative  energy  was 
then  realized.  Before  this  signal  triumph  Jesus 
was  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh.  Our  flesh 
and  blood,  even  in  Him,  could  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Hence  His  body  was  newly 
created  in  that  fashion  of  glory  in  which,  as  the 
risen  man,  He  is  now  seated  at  the  right  hand  of 
power. 

At  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  then,  we  have  the 
introduction  of  the  new  and  final  form  of  em¬ 
bodied  life,  the  divine  manhood.  And  this  is  the 
grand,  the  culminating  revelation  of  the  Word 


*  2  Cor.  v.  1G. 


WHAT  IS  ETERNAL  LIFE? 


163 


of  God,  the  mystery  which  in  other  ages  was  not 
made  known,  and  before  the  splendors  of  which 
the  light  which  shines  from  all  heathen  systems 
of  religion  or  of  human  philosophy  or  from  the 
highest  watch-towers  of  modern  science  pales,  as 
does  a  rush-light  before  the  sun. 

If  we  were  to  ask  science  whether  the  highest 
form  of  created  life  has  yet  appeared  upon  the 
earth,  she  cannot  tell  us.  She  leads  us  up  through 
all  lower  stages  of  life  to  the  earthy  man  and  ex¬ 
claims  Ecce  homo !  Behold  the  man  for  whom 
the  earth  has  been  so  long  preparing !  But  she 
knows  nothing  of  the  coming  man.  She  teaches 
no  doctrine  of  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

But  this  Word  tells  us  of  a  new  order  of 
humanity.  The  Head  and  Type  of  it  has  already 
been  here.  He  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us. 
But  through  death  He  passed  beyond  this  mortal 
sphere  out  into  immortal  manhood.  And  all 
heaven  uttered  another  Ecce  Homo ,  Behold  the 
man,  the  final  result  of  God’s  wondrous  working 
along  the  ages,  the  consummate  product  of  His 
wisdom,  power,  and  love,  worthy  to  wear  the  crown 
of  all  created  things,  and  to  possess  all  power  in 
heaven  and  on  earth.  When  Paul,  then,  speaks, 
as  he  does  in  this  salutation  to  Titus,  of  the  hope 
of  eternal  life  which  God,  that  cannot  lie,  promised 
before  the  world  began,  he  is  speaking  definitely 
of  that  new  order  of  life  which  is  embodied  in 


164  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 

the  new  man,  Christ  Jesus.  This  is  now  God’s 
gift  to  us  through  Him.  It  is  not  a  mere  perpet¬ 
uation  of  the  order  of  life  and  manhood  in  which 
we  were  first  created  in  Adam.  It  is  a  new  en¬ 
dowment  to  which  we  are  born  again  in  Christ, 
and  in  virtue  of  which  we  become  sons  of  God 
of  a  new  order,  a  new  and  higher  rank  in  creation. 
To  this  new  manhood  there  pertains  that  life  which 
is  superior  to  all  the  forces  and  substances  of  the 
universe.  Life,  as  we  see  it  in  these  perishable 
forms,  has  power  to  subsidize  the  elements  of 
nature  for  its  support  and  to  direct  its  forces  for 
its  own  ends.  But  this  it  does  now,  not  by  in¬ 
herent  right,  but  in  the  way  of  warfare  and  subju¬ 
gation,  and  in  this  struggle  its  powers  ultimately 
break  down.  But  eternal  life  must  bend  all  things 
in  heaven  and  earth  to  its  behest.  It  must  be 
superior  to  all  principalities  and  powers.  All  sub¬ 
stances  must  wait  upon  its  needs  and  all  forces 
become  tributary  to  its  aims.  The  harvest,  there¬ 
fore,  for  which  God  has  long  been  ploughing  and 
tilling  these  fields  of  creation  is  not  yet  complete. 
A  new  order  of  being  is  to  be  produced,  invested 
with  eternal  life.  Christ  is  the  first  fruits  in  the 
new  order.  But  we,  also,  are  “a  kind  of  first 
fruits.” 

We  are  told  that  the  whole  creation  is  groaning 
and  waiting  for  the  manifestation  of  these  sons 
of  God.  They  are  its  destined  lords,  and  also  its 


WHAT  IS  ETERNAL  LIFE? 


165 


deliverers.  They  are  that  anointed  race  who  are 
to  subdue  all  its  wide  realms  to  the  will  of  God  and 
make  them  vocal  with  PI  is  praise.  And  they  can¬ 
not  be  fitted  for  this  high  office  except  as  they  rise 
in  eternal  life  triumphant  over  all  the  forces  and 
powers  that  prevail  in  this  system.  Man  in  flesh 
and  blood  is  not  worthy  or  capable  of  this  dignity. 
But  God,  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  pro¬ 
vided  for  the  redemption  and  reinvestment  of 
man  for  this  high  office  in  the  power  of  an  end¬ 
less  life.  And  this,  as  we  have  seen,  implies  cor¬ 
poreity.  Eternal  life  for  man  requires  his  new 
creation  in  body  as  well  as  spirit. 

In  this  way  alone  can  he  become  a  perfect  image 
of  God  and  a  fit  vessel  for  His  eternal  praise. 


□CIII. 


THE  EVERLASTING  FIRE. 

Then  shall  He  say  also  unto  them  on  the  left  hand ,  De¬ 
part  from  me ,  ye  cursed ,  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for 
the  devil  and  his  angels. — Matthew  xxv.  41. 

There  has  been  much  division  of  opinion  as  to 
the  proper  interpretation  of  the  judgment  scene 
here  described. 

Without  stating  fully  the  grounds  of  our  con¬ 
clusions,  we  infer : 

1.  That  this  chapter  describes  a  judgment  of 
the  living  nations  of  mankind  by  the  Son  of  man. 
This,  however,  does  not  exclude  the  thought  that 
His  work  of  judgment  comprehends  also  the  gen¬ 
erations  of  the  dead.  But  here  is  portrayed  the 
period  of  crisis  and  culmination  in  His  work 
of  judgment,  so  far  as  the  earth  is  the  arena  of 
it.  Other  Scriptures,  as,  for  example,  Rev.  xx., 
teach  that  it  must  ultimately  extend  itself  through 
all  the  regions  of  the  dead  until  even  death  and 
hell  are  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire. 

2.  The  standard  of  judgment  is  the  disposition 
of  men’s  hearts  toward  the  Christ,  as  evinced  in 

their  treatment  of  His  brethren. 

166 


THE  EVERLASTING  FIRE. 


167 


3.  The  agent  of  the  divine  punishment  is  the 
“  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his 
angels.” 

After  all  the  centuries  of  devout  study  of  the 
Scriptures  concerning  the  future  destiny  of  wicked 
men,  the  church  has  failed  to  reach  substantial 
unity  of  doctrine.  There  is  essential  agreement 
indeed  in  the  received  symbols  of  the  orthodox 
churches.  But  there  are  wide  differences  in  the 
public  interpretations  of  these  symbols,  and  still 
wider  differences  in  private  opinion.  In  these 
days  religious  teachers  of  every  class  feel  called 
upon  in  some  way  to  soften  or  to  remove  the 
harsher  features  of  the  doctrine.  Very  few  now 
believe  in  the  hell  of  medieval  times.  Some  have 
taken  refuge  in  the  theory  of  conditional  immor¬ 
tality.  They  believe  that  the  wicked  will  be 
eternally  destroyed.  Others  find  relief  in  the 
hope  of  a  second  probation.  Many  believe  in 
final  restitution.  While,  within  the  lines  of  those 
denominations,  whose  creeds  debar  their  adherents 
from  such  relief,  many  seek  to  preserve  their  con¬ 
sistency  and  their  regard  for  what  they  believe  to 
be  the  teachings  of  Scripture,  by  remanding  all 
its  descriptions  of  future  punishment  to  the  realm 
of  figures.  And  so  they  reduce  the  terrors  of  hell 
down  to  the  pangs  of  remorse,  and  its  fires  of 
vengeance  to  the  sufferings  which,  in  the  course  of 
nature,  are  always  consequent  upon  sin. 


168  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


In  thus  seeking  relief  from  the  doctrine  of  hell- 
fire,  as  formulated  by  the  old  Roman  church,  and 
wielded  by  her  with  such  terrible  force,  the  Chris¬ 
tian  mind  is  but  obeying  a  proper  instinct.  In 
the  larger  liberty  in  which  it  now  moves,  it  is  com¬ 
pelled  to  seek  a  doctrine  more  in  accord  with  its 
larger  and  better  idea  of  God. 

And  yet  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  a  rev¬ 
erent  submission  to  His  Word  will  allow  us  to 
consign  all  its  dark  sayings  to  the  realm  of  sym¬ 
bols,  because  we  cannot  otherwise  explain  them. 
Rather  should  we  wait  for  that  larger  understand¬ 
ing  which  will  enable  us  to  see  their  place  and 
meaning  in  that  deep  plan  of  God  which  He  is 
now  unfolding  in  creation  and  redemption. 

We  desire,  therefore,  to  inquire  into  the  mean¬ 
ing  and  significance  of  the  terms  under  which  the 
Bible  constantly  sets  forth  its  doctrine  of  future 
punishment. 

The  most  emphatic  and  comprehensive  of  all 
the  terms  which  describe  this  punishment  is  “  eter¬ 
nal  fire.7’  It  is  surprising  how  often  in  both  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  New  “  fire”  is  spoken  of 
as  an  agent  of  the  divine  wrath  against  sin.  Both 
in  the  imagery  and  in  the  sober  statements  of  the 
Old  Testament  we  are  taught  that  “  a  fire  goeth 
before  Him  and  burnetii  up  His  enemies  round 
about.”  In  notable  acts  of  judgment  fire  was  the 
destructive  agent.  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  were 


TIIE  EVERLASTING  FIRE. 


169 


destroyed  by  it.  And  twice  in  the  New  Testament 
are  we  told  that  their  destruction  was  an  ensample 
of  that  which  shall  hereafter  overtake  the  ungodlv. 
They  suffered  “  the  vengeance  of  eternal  fire.” 
(Jude  7.)  Nadab  and  Abihu  were  consumed  by 
fire  because  of  their  rash  ministration.  The  com¬ 
panies  of  fifty  sent  out  to  capture  Elijah  were 
destroyed  by  fire  from  God  out  of  heaven.  (2 
Kings  i.) 

We  are  not  to  overlook,  however,  the  fact  that 
other  and  slower  agents  of  destruction  are  also 
spoken  of  as  “  fire.”  Moses  (Dent.  ix.  3)  declares 
that  Jehovah  would  go  before  Israel  to  drive  out 
their  enemies  as  a  consuming  fire.  Again,  he  warns 
Israel  that,  if  they  should  forsake  the  Lord,  He 
would  be  to  them  a  consuming  fire.  (Dent.  iv.  24.) 
Slower  destructive  agents,  such  as  disease  and 
famine  and  war,  by  which  men  and  nations  are 
consigned  to  death,  are  also  viewed  as  the  burning 
of  His  anger  against  them.  Fire  is  the  most  rapid 
consumer  of  created  forms  and  of  human  lives. 
But  other  agents  consume  them  also.  And  there- 
fore  all  destructive  forces,  by  which  men’s  lives  are 
broken  down  and  dissolved  and  creature  forms  are 
decomposed,  may  well  be  grouped  under  this  one 
expressive  term  “  fire.”  In  the  Song  of  Moses 
(Deut.  xxxii.  22),  we  find  all  these  destroying 
agents,  by  which  Israel  was  to  be  wasted,  grouped 
together  with  that  fire  of  hell  which  shall  some 

15 


n 


170  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


day  burn  down  to  the  foundations  of  this  present 
order  of  nature  and  transform  it.  The  whole 
wide  sweep  of  God’s  judgments  is  viewed  as  all 
of  one  class,  and  proceeding  upon  the  same  great 
principles.  Whether  the  fire  kindled  in  His  anger 
burns  against  His  people  for  their  sins,  or  burns 
up  the  fetters  which  hold  creation  in  bondage  to 
corruption,  it  is  but  one  judgment  process. 

The  Old  Testament  teaching,  therefore,  while 
it  broadens  the  use  of  the  term  “  fire”  so  as  to 
include  in  it  all  minor  consumptive  agents,  by  no 
means  discards  literal  Areas  one  and  a  chief  agent 
in  God’s  judgments. 

When  we  turn  to  the  New  Testament  we  find 
there  still  less  warrant  for  excluding  the  literal 
idea  from  all  its  presentations  of  future  judgment. 
Indeed,  in  one  notable  passage  (2  Peter  iii.),  we 
are  just  as  plainly  taught  that  fire  is  to  be  invoked 
at  the  day  of  judgment  and  perdition  of  ungodly 
men  as  that  water  was  employed  at  the  flood. 
“The  world  that  then  was,  being  overflowed  with 
water,  perished.  But  the  heavens  and  the  earth, 
which  are  now,  by  the  same  word  are  reserved 
unto  fire.”  When  Jesus,  therefore,  speaks,  as 
He  so  often  does,  of  “  the  fire  that  cannot  be 
quenched,”  “  the  everlasting  fire,”  it  may  be  an 
easy  way  for  us  to  evade  the  force  of  His  words 
by  including  them  under  the  vague  category  of 
figurative  teaching.  But  what  is  our  warrant  for 


THE  EVERLASTING  FIRE. 


171 


this?  Is  there,  then,  no  everlasting  fire,  prepared 
for  the  devil  and  his  angels?  Or,  turning  over  to 
the  words  of  His  apostles,  we  find  them  also  con¬ 
stantly  speaking  of  “a  day  of  fire.”  Paul  writes 
that  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven 
with  the  angels  of  His  might  in  flaming  fire.  (2 
Thess.  i.  8.)  And  in  the  visions  of  John  the  sunset 
days  of  this  present  world  are  lurid  with  judgment 
fires.  The  same  principle  of  interpretation,  by 
which  we  found  in  the  Old  Testament  other  agen¬ 
cies  of  trial  and  purgation,  of  sorting  and  sifting, 
and  of  destruction,  included  under  this  general 
term,  applies  here  also.  Christians  are  forewarned 
of  the  “  fiery  trial”  by  which  they  must  l>e  tried. 
But  because  some  divine  judgments,  of  which  the 
process  is  slow,  are  thus  spoken  of,  are  we  there¬ 
fore  warranted  in  emptying  this  term  “  everlasting 
fire”  of  all  literal  meaning?  Surely  we  are  not. 
The  whole  drift  of  Scripture  teaching,  and  the 
passage  already  referred  to  from  St.  Peter,  plainly 
forbid  it. 

Whatever  relief,  therefore,  there  is  for  us  from 
the  oppressive  darkness  of  this  subject,  it  cannot 
be  obtained  by  a  flippant  concealment,  behind  a 
veil  of  symbolism,  of  the  true  meaning  of  the 
terms  which  set  it  forth. 

We  conclude,  then,  that  under  the  term  “  fire” 
there  seems  to  be  included  all  those  agents  of 
divine  judgment,  of  which  fire  is  the  chief,  by 


172  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


which  creature  forms  and  human  lives  are  de¬ 
stroyed.  There  is  a  slow  fire  of  God’s  anger  burn¬ 
ing  against  men  all  the  time  in  the  diseases  and 
calamities  and  vices  that  consume  them.  But  there 
are  conspicuous  acts  of  judgment  impending  in 
the  future,  when  the  powers  of  nature,  as  the 
angels  of  His  judgment,  shall  intensify  their  work, 
and  when  fire  shall  especially  be  invoked,  not 
only  against  ungodly  men,  but  against  the  cosmical 
system,  under  the  nurture  of  which  the  evil  in 
them  has  been  fostered.  For  creation,  with  the 
creature,  is  in  bondage  to  corruption. 

And  this  leads  us  to  consider  the  force  of  the 
adjective  “  eternal,”  which  Scripture  so  often  as¬ 
sociates  with  “  fire.”  Without  entering  into  the 
discussion  of  the  question  as  to  whether  this  term 
implies  a  limitless,  or  an  age-long  duration,  we 
cannot  overlook  the  fact  that  the  word  refers  to 
the  character  as  well  as  to  the  duration  of  that 
which  it  describes.  There  is  a  fire  which  charac¬ 
terizes  this  present  “  age,”  or  economy  of  God’s 
working  in  creation.  Science  affirms  that  the  ex¬ 
isting  universe  has  been  born  out  of  fire.  And 
fire  is  now  its  predominant  feature.  Every  star 
that  sparkles  in  the  midnight  sky,  except  the  few 
planets  near  us,  is  a  globe  of  fire.  And  these  in¬ 
candescent  orbs  seem  to  have  been  concentrated 
out  of  a  luminous  fiery  mist  that  filled  the  vast 
spaces  of  the  universe.  The  planets  are  probably 


THE  EVERLASTING  FIRE. 


173 


formed  out  of  detached  masses  from  the  central 
suns,  slowly  cooled  down  by  radiation,  and  through 
the  absorption  of  their  heat,  rendered  latent  by 
chemical  combinations  among  their  elements.  And 
thus  the  eternal  cosmical  fire  is  stored  up  in  the 
substances  of  nature,  and  in  all  the  forms  which 
created  life  takes  on.  These  are  all  born  out  of 
the  womb  of  this  seonian  fire.  And  in  the  whirl 
of  nature’s  forces  they  are  all  carried  back  again 
into  the  abyss  from  which  they  sprang.  Their 
elements  are  dissolved,  sometimes  with  slow,  some¬ 
times  with  rapid  combustion.  So  that  there  is 
an  eternal  contest  in  the  universe  between  the 
life  which,  proceeding  from  God,  pervades  it  and 
the  eternal  fire.  The  life  has  been  capturing  and 
subsidizing  the  elements  in  creation  toward  the 
ends  of  its  manifestation.  And  the  eternal  fire 
has  been  claiming  back  these  elements  wrested 
from  it,  and  resolving  them  again  into  chaos 
and  emptiness.  But  life  again  reclaims  them, 
and  has  been  advancing  with  triumphant  steps 
along  the  ages,  taking  on  higher  and  higher  forms, 
until  at  last  man  was  produced,  the  image  of  the 
Creator,  and  formed  to  *be  the  receptacle  of  His 
immortal  life.  And  yet  the  man  of  the  earth, 
the  Adamic  man,  is  but  a  temporary  and  pro¬ 
visional  vessel  for  this  treasure.  He  is  subject  to 
death.  His  earthy  form,  like  that  of  the  animal 

races  below  him,  consumes  under  the  slow  gnaw- 

15* 


174  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


ing  of  the  eternal  fire.  Hence  the  final  perfected 
man  must  be  raised  out  of  this  universal  grave, 
in  incorruption.  The  life  that  was  in  Jesus  tri¬ 
umphed  over  all  the  destructive  forces  of  creation, 
the  devil  and  his  angels,*  and  so  He  redeemed 
the  man  nature  and  invested  it  with  His  eternal 
life.  And  so,  at  last,  there  was  produced,  in  Him, 
the  incorruptible  man,  superior  to  all  the  forces 
of  the  universe,  the  perfected  image  of  the  in¬ 
visible  God,  radiant  with  His  life,  the  representa¬ 
tive  of  His  authority,  and  the  Lord  alike  of  all 

*  * 

the  realms  of  life,  and  of  death  and  Hell.  And 
in  the  power  of  His  resurrection,  as  we  are  ex¬ 
pressly  taught  (1  Cor.  xv.  21-23),  shall  all  the 
generations  of  men  who  have  gone  down  to  death 
be  successively  recovered  from  its  grasp. 

AVe  begin  thus  to  discover  what  is  u  the  ever¬ 
lasting  fire  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels.” 
It  is  the  eternal  cosmic  fire  of  the  universe  which, 
like  a  great  dragon,  has  ever  been  devouring  the 
creatures  born  out  of  its  depths.  Down  into  the 
darkness  of  this  dissolution,  this  sheol  or  hell, 
have  gone  the  generations  of  mankind.  At  the 
judgments  which  shall  attend  the  Lord’s  coming, 
we  are  told  that  these  destructive  forces  shall  be 
in  more  intense  operation.  But  the  character  of 


*  See  remarks  concerning  “the  prince  of  this  world,” 
page  85. 


THE  EVERLASTING  FIRE. 


175 


their  work  will  be  the  same, — the  work  of  death. 
As  we  have  seen,  literal  fire  will  be  an  active  agent 
in  these  judgment  processes.  It  is  probable  that 
there  will  be  new  and  unlooked-for  irruptions  of 
that  fiery  energy  of  which  the  earth  and  all  nature 
is  a  magazine.  As  to  the  totality  and  the  simulta¬ 
neousness  of  these  judgment  fires  much  might  be 
said.  Suffice  it  here  to  say  that  Scripture  teaches 
that  both  the  earth  and  the  human  race  survive 
them.  We  are  interested  now,  however,  in  estab¬ 
lishing  the  truth  that  the  eternal  fire,  which  is  the 
agent  of  this  destruction,  is  the  same  as  that  which 
has  ever  been  devouring  all  material  forms.  The 
decay  and  death  of  these  bodily  frames  is  but  the 
slow  gnawing  of  the  tooth  of  this  eternal  fire.  And 
therefore  we  affirm  that  the  underlying  thought  in 
all  the  Scripture  phrases  which  describe  it,  such  as 
“hell-fire,”  “  the  fire  that  cannot  be  quenched,” 
etc.,  is  this  of  remorseless  destruction.  The  fact 
that  the  fire  cannot  be  quenched  emphasizes  this 
thought  that  its  work  cannot  be  arrested.  When 
John  the  Baptist  declares  that  the  Messiah  shall 
thoroughly  purge  His  floor  and  burn  up  the  chaff 
with  unquenchable  fire,*  no  thought  is  farther 
from  his  mind  than  the  endless  preservation  of 
the  chaff  in  the  fire.  And  so  when  Jesus  warns 
us  to  fear  one  who  is  able  to  destroy  both  body 


*  Matt.  iii.  12. 


176  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


and  soul  in  hell,  we  have  no  warrant  for  assuming 
that  both  will  be  preserved  there  for  an  endless 
combustion. 

The  punishment,  then,  that  is  held  before  the 
sinner  in  the  Bible  is  that  he  must  become  a  trophy 
and  a  prey  to  those  destructive  forces,  powers  of 
darkness,  of  whom  the  devil  is  the  chief,  who 
are  themselves  to  be  finally  buried  in  this  grave 
of  fire,  and  who  have  been  especially  active  and 
eager  to  drag  down  man  into  this  abyss,  because 
for  man  there  has  been  provided  that  triumphant 
life  which  cannot  be  held  captive  in  their  domain, 
and  to  the  chariot-wheels  of  whose  progress  they 
must  be  bound  with  everlasting  chains. 

We  arrive,  then,  at  this  point  in  the  solution  of 
this  mystery.  The  punishment  of  sin  is  to  suffer 
destruction  in  this  abyss  of  creation’s  fire;  the 
dissolution  of  the  elements  out  of  which  we  have 
been  built  up  into  this  highest  form  of  created 
life.  It  is  to  sink  back  out  of  this  realm  of  life 
and  light  into  utter  darkness  and  chaos.  Whether 
this  destruction  involves  the  extinction  of  the 
spiritual  part  of  man’s  being,  or  whether  it  pre¬ 
cludes  any  possible  recovery,  are  points  about 
which  we  shall  speak  hereafter.  But  there  is  one 
point  to  which,  in  passing,  we  would  direct  atten¬ 
tion,  and  that  is  that  the  law  of  God’s  judgments 
is  universal.  Not  even  Christians  are  a  favored 
class.  “  Our  God  is  a  consuming  fire.”  St.  Paul 


THE  EVERLASTING  FIRE. 


177 


also  writes  (1  Cor.  iii.  13-15)  that  their  works, 
if  evil,  must  be  burned  up,  and  they  themselves 
saved  with  the  suffering  of  loss  and  “  so  as  by 
fired7  And  here  we  may  discover  the  meaning 
of  that  baptism  of  fire  which  the  Messiah  was  to 
accomplish  in  connection  with  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  His  Spirit  introduces  into  us  all  a 
cleansing  fire  of  self-judgment.  We  first  accept,  as 
just,  the  sentence  of  death  against  our  old  nature, 
which  sentence  requires  that  the  earthy  man  shall 
go  down  to  death  and  see  corruption.  And  we  pro¬ 
ceed  to  execute  this  sentence  against  its  evils.  “  The 
spirit  of  judgment  and  of  burning77  thus  consumes 
away  the  evil  of  our  Adam  nature  and  finally 
consigns  it  to  the  grave.  We  thus  anticipate  the 
just  judgment  of  God  which  has  gone  out  against 
all  flesh.  We  conserit  that  it  shall  be  given  over 
to  the  fire.  We  are  not  saved  by  a  rescue  of  the 
old  man  from  this  pit  of  hell.  We  are  saved  by 
the  creation  in  us  of  a  new  man  which  cannot  sin 
and  cannot  die.  And  so  out  of  this  baptism  of 
fire  we  rise  into  the  life  of  God.  Unbelievers, 
who  do  not  submit  to  this  self-judgment,  must 
meet  judgment  in  its  more  terrible  forms  in  the 
future.  But  there  is  one  law  alike  for  all.  God 
is  no  respecter  of  persons.  If  we  do  not  judge 
ourselves  we  must  hereafter  be  judged  with  the 
world.  (1  Cor.  xi.  32.) 

What,  then,  survives  the  everlasting  fire?  We 


m 


178  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN 


have  seen  that  the  life  which  is  beyond  its  reach 
is  that  which  is  now  deposited  in  Jesus  Christ. 
Out  from  all  bondage  to  those  cosmical  forces 
which  claimed  man’s  nature  for  destruction,  and 
which  are  the  agents  of  the  divine  judgments 
against  it,  above  the  raging  of  their  dissolving 
fires,  He  arose  triumphant.  (Coloss.  ii.  15.)  And 
the  man  nature  was  exalted  in  Him  to  that  pin¬ 
nacle  of  glory  to  which  it  was,  from  the  begin¬ 
ning,  appointed.  He  came,  as  Son  of  man,  into 
the  heritage  of  all  things.  And  our  lives  are  re¬ 
deemed  from  destruction  as,  in  the  way  of  faith, 
thev  become  linked  in  with  His  eternal  life. 

We  are  led,  then,  to  conclude  that  the  “  ever¬ 
lasting  fire”  is  not  a  fire  of  endless  torment,  but 
one  of  inevitable  destruction.  And  this  accords 
with  the  fact,  patent  on  tile  face  of  Scripture, 
that  every  passage  which  alludes  to  future  punish¬ 
ment  carries  with  it,  in  some  form,  the  idea  of  de¬ 
struction.  The  very  alternative  of  the  gospel  is 
“  perish”  or  “have  everlasting  life.”  Men  out 
of  Christ  must  sink  down  into  this  hell.  Those 
who  are  “  in  Him”  must  rise  and  reign  in  life 
eternal. 

One  passage  indeed  seems  to  be  an  exception  to 
this  uniform  teaching.  In  Rev.  xiv.  10,  11,  it  is 
stated  that  a  certain  class  of  sinners  shall  suffer  a 
special  torment,  the  smoke  of  which  ascendeth  up 
unto  the  ages  of  the  ages.  Upon  this  passage  the 


THE  EVERLASTING  FIRE. 


179 


doctrine  of  an  endless  torment  in  hell  mainly 
rests.  But,  not  to  speak  of  the  inconsistency  of 
this  revolting  conception  of  God  with  St.  John’s 
definition  of  Him  as  love,  we  submit  that  one  or 
two  such  passages  in  the  most  obscure  book  of  the 
Bible  cannot  set  aside  the  multitude  of  plainer 
passages  which  represent  the  punishment  of  the 
wicked  as  “  destruction.”  Unless  we  can  certainly 
affirm  what  person  or  system  is  spoken  of  as  “  the 
beast  and  his  image,”  and  what  the  special  sin  in¬ 
volved  in  the  worship  of  them,  we  are  not  pre¬ 
pared  to  dogmatize  upon  this  passage.  In  a  par¬ 
allel  passage  in  Isaiah  xxxiv.,  we  read  that  the 
smoke  of  the  fiery  judgment  which  the  Lord  should 
send  upon  Idumea  “ shall  go  up  forever.”  And 
yet  the  promise,  through  the  same  prophet,  is,  that 
the  whole  earth  shall  be  renewed. 

If,  however,  the  punishment  of  sin  be  this  ever¬ 
lasting  destruction  in  that  gulf  of  fire,  out  of 
which  all  created  forms  were  first  evolved,  if  the 
eternal  fire  must  thus  claim  back  its  own,  is  it  the 
master  of  the  universe?  Shall  it  forever  triumph 
over  life,  and  will  the  devil  remain  the  victor  in 
this  drama  of  ages?  We  have  already  observed 
how  life  has  been  advancing  its  conquests  along 
the  ages  and  over  the  whole  field  of  creation.  But 
its  triumph  was  not  signal  and  final  until  the  risen 
Man  burst  the  bands  of  death  and  spoiled  the 
principalities  and  powers  of  its  whole  realm. 


180  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


Henceforth  life,  in  Him,  abides,  the  Master  of 
this  created  system,  the  subjugator  of  all  its  hos¬ 
tile  powers.  He  must  put  down  all  rule  and  au¬ 
thority  and  power.  All  enemies  must  be  trampled 
beneath  His  feet.  And  even  the  last  enemy, 
which  is  death,  shall  be  destroyed.  The  devil 
and  his  angels,  death  and  hell,  all  must  be  cast 
into  the  lake  of  fire.  The  eternal  cosmic  fire  must 
prove  the  final  grave  of  all  that  is  hostile  to  the 
reign  of  life  in  the  universe.  The  whole  creation 
must  be  redeemed,  renewed,  purified.  The  former 
things  must  pass  away,  and  all  things  be  made 
new. 

Such  is  the  sublime  mission  of  that  triumphant 
Lord  of  life,  the  Second  Man,  whom  God  has 
now  crowned  as  King  over  His  wide  dominions. 
And  He  is  the  Head  of  an  anointed  race,  to  whom 
He  has  given  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God, 
and  whom  He  is  not  ashamed  to  call  His  brethren. 
He  is  bringing  them  to  the  same  glory.  And  in 
them  we  see  the  high  destiny  to  which,  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  manhood  has  been  as¬ 
signed  in  this  universe  of  God. 


XIV. 


DESTRUCTION  QUA  HOMO : 

A  NEW  THOUGHT  ABOUT  FUTURE  PUNISHMENT. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  advance  a  step  farther 
in  the  attempt  to  explore  the  mystery  of  future 
punishment.  We  have  found  that  it  is  at  least 
probable  that  the  fearful  words  which  describe 
this  punishment  refer  to  the  devouring  energy  of 
those  destructive  cosmic  forces,  of  which  fire  is 
the  chief,  by  which  creature  forms  are  broken 
down,  disintegrated,  and  dissolved,  and  human 
lives  are  consumed.  We  now  propose  to  inquire 
whether  this  penalty  of  sin  involves  the  utter  ex¬ 
tinction  of  man’s  being,  or  his  destruction  out  of 
manhood. 

There  are  three  principal  forms  of  belief  con¬ 
cerning  the  destiny  of  the  wicked  : 

1.  Restorationism,  or  the  doctrine  that  all  men, 
after  adequate  punishment,  will  obtain  eternal 
life  and  happiness. 

2.  The  doctrine  of  conditional  immortality, 
which  affirms  that  wicked  men,  failing  of  eternal 

life,  will  be  eternally  destroyed. 

16 


181 


182  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


3.  The  doctrine  of  eternal  conscious  misery,  an 
endless  torment. 

All  of  these  theories  quote  the  Scriptures  abun¬ 
dantly  in  their  support,  and  insist  that  the  passages 
which  seem  to  favor  the  other  views  shall  be  sub¬ 
ordinated  to  their  own  proof  texts.  There  must 
be  somewhere  a  doctrine  upon  this  subject  which 
shall  not  rest  upon  isolated  texts,  but  upon  the 
broad  foundation  of  the  whole  Bible. 

Without  presuming  to  announce  such  a  com¬ 
plete  doctrine,  we  think  that  the  discussion  of  the 
previous  pages  has  prepared  us  to  point  out  the 
direction  in  which  it  may  be  found.  We  have, 
in  this  volume,  insisted  upon  the  important  place 
which  manhood  holds  in  the  system  of  creation, 
and  in  the  unfolding  plans  of  its  Author.  We 
have  glanced  at  the  destructive  forces  against 
which  manhood  must  contend  to  win  this  place; 
and  at  the  effects  of  sin  in  bringing  man  into 
bondage  to  these  evil  powers,  and  in  thus  pre¬ 
venting  him  from  reaching  this  high  goal.  The 
punishment  of  sin,  therefore,  must  be  that  the 
sinner  falls  as  a  victim  to  this  destructive  op¬ 
position.  He  fails  to  reach  the  true  end  of  his 
being.  He  is  consigned  by  the  Judge,  who  is  also 
the  standard  of  admission  to  the  high  dignities  of 
manhood,  to  the  wrathful  energy  of  these  forces, 
of  which  the  everlasting  cosmic  fire  is  the  repre¬ 
sentative  and  the  chief,  which  make  havoc  of  his 


DESTRUCTION  QUA  HOMO. 


183 


embodied  being  and  destroy  him,  not  utterly,  but 
out  of  the  line  of  completed  manhood. 

Two  things  come  out  clearly  upon  any  full  in¬ 
vestigation  of  Scripture : 

1.  All  its  representations  of  future  punish¬ 
ment  involve  the  idea  of  the  sinner’s  death  or  de¬ 
traction  of  being  in  some  form.  Every  passage, 
excepting  one  or  two  referred  to  on  page  178, 
conveys  this  meaning.  Even  its  pictures  of  hell- 
fire,  rightly  viewed,  are  not  intended  to  convey 
the  thought  of  unending  torment,  but  to  empha¬ 
size  this  thought  of  consumption  of  being  as  the 
sinner’s  doom.  All  destructive  forces  in  the 
universe  contribute  to  this  result.  The  law  of 
nature  is  the  law  of  God.  And  no  created  life 
can  survive  the  operation  of  this  law,  except  it  be 
linked  in,  through  Christ,  with  the  life  of  God. 

2.  This  extinction  of  man’s  being  cannot  be 
absolute  and  final.  For  it  is  plainly  revealed  that 
all  the  dead  shall  be  raised,  the  just  and  the  un¬ 
just.  Such  an  issue,  moreover,  would  leave  Satan 
master  of  the  field,  as  concerns  that  large  portion 
of  the  race  blotted  out  of  existence. 

These  variant  Scriptures  are  harmonized  by 
supposing  that  the  destruction  threatened  is  a 
death  out  of  manhood,  a  destruction  qua  homo. 
Such  a  conclusion  seems  to  be  warranted  by 
these  considerations : 

1.  Scripture  and  science  unite  in  teaching  that 


184  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


man  is  the  highest  product  of  this  created  system. 
Scripture  further  affirms  that  he  is  made  in  the 
image  of  God  and  is  the  appointed  heir  to  all  His 
works.  In  his  present  form  of  being,  however, 
subject  to  sin  and  death,  he  does  not  reach  the  true 
goal  of  manhood,  nor  enter  upon  his  proper  in¬ 
heritance.  His  present  form  is  provisional,  tem¬ 
porary,  perishable.  He  is  now  a  candidate,  in  a 
limited  and  disciplinary  sphere,  for  that  immortal 
manhood,  which  is  the  completed  image  of  the  in¬ 
visible  God,  and  the  heir  to  His  authority  and 
estate.  The  risen  Jesus  is  the  first-born  in  this 
new  order  of  being,  and,  as  such,  all  the  forces  of 
the  universe  have  been  made  subject  to  Him.  And 
Ave  are  heirs  of  God  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ, 
the  u  appointed  Heir  of  all  things.”  (Heb.  i.  2.) 

2.  Embodiment  is  essential  to  manhood.  Our 
bodies  are  necessary  to  give  us  place  and  title  in 
this  system  of  creation.  They  are  the  batteries 
through  which  we  operate  upon  its  forces,  the  in¬ 
struments  by  which  we  are  put  into  possession  of 
its  domain.  This  is  the  prerogative  of  manhood. 
And  hence  the  importance  of  that  crowning  doc¬ 
trine  of  the  New  Testament,  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead.  Embodied  immortality  is  the  true  goal 
of  manhood.  A  disembodied  ghost  is  not  a  man. 
It  becomes  an  outcast  in  this  system  of  creation, 
as  were  the  bodiless  demons,  who  in  the  first  gospel 
times  entered  into  the  bodies  of  men,  preferring 


DESTRUCTION  QUA  HOMO. 


185 


even  to  go  into  swine  to  disembodiment,  and  whom 
Jesus  cast  out.  Saints,  during  the  intermediate 
state,  are  not  disembodied.  (2  Cor.  v.)* 

*  We  are  far  from  accepting,  however,  the  explanation 
of  this  mystery,  adopted  from  Swedenborg,  and  now  widely 
received,  which  makes  each  man’s  resurrection  to  take  place 
at  death,  and  which  empties  the  many  passages  which  speak 
of  a  future  signal  triumph  over  death,  at  Christ’s  coming, 
of  their  meaning,  or  denies  their  full  inspiration.  (See  Dr. 
J.  M.  Whiton’s  “  Gospel  of  the  Resurrection,”  page  266, 
et  passim.)  A  true  doctrine  of  the  intermediate  state  is 
rather  to  be  sought  in  a  larger  view  of  the  fundamental 
teaching  of  the  New  Testament  concerning  the  relation 
of  believers  to  Christ.  We  are  uniformly  described  as  “in 
Christ,”  and  as  so  incorporated  into  Him,  as  to  consti¬ 
tute  with  Him  one  body.  The  whole  body,  Head  and  mem¬ 
bers,  is  called  “  the  Christ.”  (1  Cor.  xii.'13.)  Why  may  not, 
therefore,  the  resurrection  body  of  the  Christ  provide  for 
all  His  members  an  embodied  home  until  each  one  shall 
take  on  for  himself  a  glorified  humanity  like  unto  His? 
If  a  legion  of  evil  spirits  could  occupy  one  human  body 
(Luke  viii.  30),  why  may  not  the  same  be  true,  on  the 
other  side,  and  in  the  larger  possibilities  of  the  heavenly 
manhood,  of  the  multitude  of  spirits  of  just  men?  If  all 
the  branches  and  twigs  of  the  old  trunk  of  humanity  were 
germinally  in  Adam,  the  whole  stock  of  the  new  manhood, 
must  be  in  Christ.  He  is  the  Vine  and  we  the  branches. 
Each  branch  of  the  vine  shall  become  a  separate  shoot,  and 
itself  a  vine  at  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  But,  before 
that  event,  each  bud  in  the  vine,  in  virtue  of  the  fact  that 
it  is  a  bud,  must  have  an  embodiment  in  the  parent  stock, 
a  germinal  body  in  the  glorified  body  of  Christ.  And  so, 
durincr  the  intermediate  state,  outhomed  from  the  body 
we  are  inhomed  with  the  Lord.”  (2  Cor.  v.  8,  Gr.) 

16* 


186  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


3.  Disembodiment,  therefore,  is  a  death  out  of 
manhood.  It  is  failure  to  attain  the  true  goal  of 
being,  which  is  new  creation  after  the  pattern  of 
the  glorified  humanity  of  Jesus.  It  is  to  be  dis¬ 
crowned  and  dispossessed ;  an  exile  in  the  system 
of  creation  instead  of  an  heir  and  lord. 

4.  Since  “  the  wages  of  sin  is  death, ”  there  must 
be  either  utter  extinction  of  being,  or  the  death  of 
the  sinner  in  his  'present  form  of  being.  Destruc¬ 
tion  qud  homo  would  satisfy  the  terms  of  the  sen¬ 
tence,  execute  the  law,  and  be  the  proper  and 
adequate  penalty  for  incorrigible  sin. 

5.  After  the  law  is  thus  vindicated  by  the  death 
of  the  sinner  out  of  the  rank  of  being  in  which 
he  was  created,  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that 
there  is  a  further  positive  infliction  of  torment. 
There  must  be  the  torment  of  privation,  the  “  suf¬ 
fering  of  loss,”  the  outer  darkness  and  nakedness, 
resulting  from  such  degradation  from  so  high  an 
estate.  But  after  the  “  eternal  fire”  of  creation, 
out  of  whose  womb  all  created  forms  first  sprang, 
receives  back  and  consumes  its  own,  it  is  not  ne¬ 
cessary  to  think  of  it  as  a  continuous  fire  of  tor¬ 
ment. 

6.  These  naked  spirits  must  yet  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  “  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh.”  What 
He  purposes  to  do  with  them  in  the  future  is  not 
plainly  revealed.  We  have  seen  that  they  fail  of 
the  glory  and  blessedness  of  the  world  or  age  to 


DESTRUCTION  QUA  HOMO. 


187 


come.  What  the  “ages  to  come”  may  have  in 
store  for  them  is  not  revealed.  Scripture  warrants 
at  least  a  hope  that  they  may  be  recovered  from 
their  outcast  state  on  to  a  lower  plane  of  embodied 
life  than  that  occupied  by  the  sons  of  men,  who 
are  exalted  to  the  rank  of  sons  of  God.*  Their 
degradation  would,  therefore,  be  their  eternal  pun¬ 
ishment,  without  a  necessity  for  their  eternal 
misery.  Their  destruction  from  the  high  rank 
of  completed  manhood,  and  loss  of  the  glory  in¬ 
volved,  would  be  their  u  everlasting  destruction 
from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  from  the  glory 
of  His  power.”  (2  Thess.  i.  9.)  Such  banishment 
would  be  an  irreparable  loss  and  degradation.  It 
would  be  consignment  to  those  outer  circles  of  life 
and  being,  which  are  far  away  from  the  central 
life  and  glory.  But  such  eternal  punishment 
might  not  involve  eternal  woe  and  agony,  nor 
eternal  hatred  of  God  and  rebellion  against  His 
will.  Such  banished  discrowned  outcasts  might, 
in  due  time,  fall  into  lower  ranks  of  being  and 
condition  in  that  kingdom  in  which  all  things 
must  become  subject  to  the  one  Lord.f 


*  See  e.  g.  Ezek.  xvi.  53-63;  1  Peter  iii.  18-20. 
f  Even  St.  Augustine,  who  was  one  of  the  most  severe 
of  the  fathers  in  his  teaching  about  future  punishment, 
admits  that  it  may  consist  in  degradation  of  being.  A 
writer  in  Brownson's  (Quarterly  Review  for  July,  1863,  as 
quoted  by  Dr.  Whiton,  states  that  Augustine  held  that 


188  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION ’  AND  OF  MAN. 


Here,  then,  we  think  we  have  the  outline  of  a 
doctrine  of  future  punishment  in  harmony  with 
Scripture,  with  reason,  and  with  science. 

To  recapitulate :  the  forces  of  life  in  the  universe 
are  ever  reaching  out  after  higher  forms.  Man  is 
the  highest  fruit  of  this  created  system.  But  he  has 
not  yet  reached  his  ultimate  form  of  being.  His 
body  must  be  fashioned  like  unto  the  glorious  body 
of  Christ,  “  according  to  the  working  whereby  Pie 
is  able  to  subdue  all  things  unto  Himself.”  He 
is  now  the  “  First-Born  from  the  dead”  in  this 
new  order  of  manhood.  But  He  has  u  many 
brethren,”  who  are  to  “  become  the  first  fruits 
of  God’s  creatures.”  All  of  the  human  race  are 
not  chosen  to  this  high  honor.  Multitudes,  to 
whom  even  the  gospel  is  preached,  u  adjudge 
themselves  unworthy  of  everlasting  life.”  They 
do  not  reach,  therefore,  this  high  goal  of  immortal 
manhood.  They  die  in  their  sins,  and  are  destroyed 
quoad  homines.  This  is  the  sentence  of  the  law 
against  them.  The  penalty  being  inflicted  and  the 
law  satisfied,  God  is  left  free  to  do  with  them  in  the 


“eternal  death  is  a  subsidence  into  a  lower  form  of  life,  a 
lapse  into  an  inferior  mode  of  existence,  a  privation  of  the 
highest  vital  influx  from  God  in  order  to  everlasting  life. 
.  .  .  There  is  no  trace  of  the  idea  that  those  who  din  in  sin 
lose  all  good  of  existence,  become  completely  evil,  and  con¬ 
tinue  to  grow  everlastingly  in  the  direction  of  an  infinite 
wickedness,  which  merits  a  corresponding  increase  of  pain.” 


DESTRUCTION  QUA  HOMO. 


189 


future  as  He  will.  He  cannot  indeed  raise  them  to 
the  rank  of  being  attained  by  those  who,  now  that 
the  glory  of  Jesus  is  hidden,  have  learned  to  call 
Him  Lord.  They  have  forfeited  this  high  honor. 
But,  on  a  lower  plane  of  embodied  life,  and  in 
lower  ranks,  they  may  be  subjects  and  servants  in 
that  kingdom  in  which  they  might  have  been  lords, 
“  vessels  unto  dishonor/7  but  still  having  a  place 
in  our  Father’s  “  great  house.”  (2  Tim.  ii.  20.) 

Here  also  we  have  a  doctrine  which  harmonizes 
what  there  is  true  in  each  one  of  the  three  great 
divisions  of  Christian  thought  upon  this  subject. 
Only  bigotry  can  deny  that  there  is  a  phase  of 
truth  in  each  one  of  these.  But  neither  of  them 
contains  the  whole  truth.  To  borrow  certain 
aphorisms  from  Joseph  Cook,  as  applied  to  a  dif¬ 
ferent  subject,  “Neither  of  these  doctrines  is  true 
apart  from  the  others.  Either  one  is  true  with 
the  others.”  The  truth  that  is  in  each  of  them 
is  necessary  to  a  complete  doctrine. 

Now  the  doctrine  advanced  concedes,  1.  To  the 
destructionists,  that  the  Scripture  alternative  of 
life  in  Christ  is  death.  But  it  affirms  that  this 
sentence  pronounced  against  men  is  executed  in 
their  destruction  as  men.  The  sinner  perishes  out 
of  manhood  in  such  a  way  as  to  lose  place  and 
title  in  this  highest  rank  of  created  being,  with 
its  infinite  capabilities  of  knowing  God  and  of 
inheriting  His  vast  estate. 


190  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


2.  It  concedes  to  the  restorationists  the  un- 
worthiness  of  that  view  of  God  which  supposes 
that  He  must  needs  make  plac£  in  His  universe 
for  eternal  sin  and  hatred  of  Himself.  It  admits 
that  all  His  creatures  may  be  at  last  reconciled  to 
Him  on  lower  planes  of  life  and  intelligence  and 
position  in  the  grand  economy  of  His  kingdom  in 
which  He  must  be  all  in  all. 

3.  It  affirms,  however,  that  such  restoration  must 
perpetuate  the  disgrace  to  which  the  loss  of  eternal 
life  in  Christ  subjects  the  unbeliever.  It  teaches 
eternal  punishment  in  an  eternal  degradation  of 
the  sinner’s  being  from  the  high  rank  of  sonship 
to  God,  and  from  the  true  goal  of  manhood,  as 
His  completed  image  and  the  lawful  heir  to  all 
His  wide  dominions. 


2CV. 


THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  AND  OF  THE  LAMB. 

And  they  sing  the  song  of  Moses  the  servant  of  God,  and 
the  song  of  the  Lamb ,  saying,  Great  and  marvellous  are  Thy 
works,  Lord  God  Almighty ;  just  and  true  are  Thy  ways, 
Thou  King  of  saints.  Who  shall  not  fear  thee,  0  Lord ,  and 
glorify  Thy  name  ?  for  Thou  only  art  holy :  for  all  nations 
shall  come  and  worship  before  Thee ;  for  Thy  judgments  are 
made  manifest. — Revelation  xv.  3,  4. 

There  are  two  songs  of  Moses  given  in  the 
Pentateuch,  one  in  the  15th  chapter  of  Exodus, 
which  he  sang  with  the  children  of  Israel  after 
the  overthrow  of  Pharaoh  and  his  hosts  in  the 
Red  Sea.  This  is  commonly  regarded  as  the  one 
referred  to  in  the  text.  There  is  another  song  of 
Moses  recorded  near  the  close  of  Deuteronomy. 
This  is  especially  the  song  of  Moses  the  servant 
of  God.  While  the  hymn  of  triumph  sung  on 
the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea  lends  its  spirit  to  this 
song  in  the  Revelation,  its  thoughts  are  derived 
mainly  from  the  song  in  Deuteronomy.  The  fourth 
verse,  which  is  the  key-note  of  that  song,  is  here 
quoted:  “He  is  the  Rock,  His  work  is  perfect: 
for  all  His  ways  are  judgment;  a  God  of  truth 

and  without  iniquity,  just  and  right  is  He.”  This 

191 


192  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


is  the  key-note  also  of  the  song  in  the  Revelation. 
It  begins  with  an  ascription  of  praise  to  God  as 
the  true  and  righteous  One.  And  the  issue  in 
both  is  the  same.  In  both,  the  nations  rejoice  in 
the  manifested  judgments  of  God. 

The  song  of  Moses,  then,  whose  tones  are  here 
blended  with  that  of  the  Lamb,  is  chiefly  the  one 
which,  at  the  command  of  Jehovah,  this  servant 
of  God  put  on  record  near  the  close  of  his  life. 

That  song,  I  hesitate  not  to  say,  is  one  of  the 
deepest  passages  in  Holy  Scripture.  It  was  uttered 
at  a  momentous  period  in  Israel’s  history.  The 
wanderings  in  the  desert  were  now  over.  The 
people  stood  upon  the  borders  of  the  promised 
land.  Moses,  in  a  series  of  farewell  discourses,  had 
reviewed  the  way  in  which  the  Lord  had  led  them 
during  the  forty  years,  and  enforced  upon  them  its 
solemn  lessons.  But  with  prophetic  foresight  he 
saw  that,  notwithstanding  the  Lord’s  special  and 
wonderful  dealings  with  them,  the  history  of  Israel 
in  the  future  would  be  a  succession  of  failures,  as 
in  the  past.  The  Lord’s  own  people,  whom  He 
had  loved  and  chosen,  for  whom  He  had  so  signally 
interposed,  and  whom  He  had  carried  as  upon 
eagle’s  wings  through  the  desert,  whom  He  had 
borne  with  and  chastened  as  a  father  a  son,  would 
soon  forget  and  forsake  Him.  And  for  such  de¬ 
parture  they  must  be  punished.  They  must  fail 
to  enjoy  that  wealth  of  blessings  which  He  had 


THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  AND  OF  THE  LAMB.  193 


• 

just  promised  them,  if  obedient,  and  be  wasted 
and  destroyed  under  the  blighting  curses  He  had 
just  threatened,  until  at  last  their  enemies  would 
gloat  in  a  triumph  over  them  that  seemed  complete 
and  without  remedy. 

In  foresight,  then,  of  this  sad  history,  Moses  was 
commanded  to  write  all  the  words  of  this  song, 
and  to  teach  it  to  them  for  a  testimony.  It  stands 
here  as  a  monumental  witness  for  God,  erected  at 
this  solemn  juncture  in  Israel’s  history  by  His 
most  eminent  servant,  whom  God  was  about  to 
take  to  Himself. 

The  circumstances,  therefore,  of  its  utterance, 
as  well  as  the  import  of  its  words,  combine  to 
make  this  one  of  the  most  impressive  passages  in 
the  Bible.  And  that  we  do  not  overestimate  its 
importance  is  further  proved  by  the  frequency 
with  which  it  is  quoted  or  referred  to  by  later 
writers.  The  strains  of  this  song  run  all  through 
the  Psalms.  All  the  prophets  borrow  colorings 
from  it  with  which  to  paint  their  visions  of  the 
future.  It  is  quoted  by  Paul  in  his  epistle  to  the 
Romans,  in  which  he  discusses  the  mystery  of 
God’s  dealings  with  Israel,  and  their  bearing  upon 
the  Gentiles,  who,  in  the  words  of  this  song,  are 
summoned  to  rejoice  with  them.  “Rejoice,  ye 
Gentiles,  with  His  people.”  And,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  strains  of  this  song,  which  may  be  called 
the  judgment  song,  are  caught  up  by  the  victors 
in  17 


194  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


on  the  sea  of  glass,  and  blended  with  the  redemp¬ 
tion  song,  the  song  of  the  Lamb. 

We  do  not,  then,  exaggerate  the  importance  of 
this  song.  It  is  one  of  the  key-passages  of  Scrip¬ 
ture.  It  opens  up  whole  volumes  of  the  divine 
administration. 

It  presents  these  salient  features : 

1.  It  recounts  God’s  gracious  dealings  with 
Israel,  and  unfolds  the  sad  story  of  their  future 
apostasies. 

2.  It  affirms  that  the  righteousness  of  God  will 
be  vindicated,  and  that  they  must  suffer  the  full 
measure  of  wrath  their  sins  deserved. 

3.  It  anticipates  the  triumph  of  their  enemies 
in  this  result,  and  especially  of  a  great  enemy, 
who  can  be  no  other  than  Satan,  the  great  foe  of 
God  and  man. 

4.  It  declares  that  the  nations,  who  are  to  be 
the  instruments  of  the  divine  judgments  against 
Israel,  must  themselves  be  destroyed  before  the 
consuming  fire  of  His  anger. 

5.  It  especially  proclaims  a  series  of  revenges 
upon  the  great  enemy  referred  to. 

6.  So  broad  would  be  the  claims  of  God’s 
righteousness  in  the  case,  so  deep  the  burning  of 
His  anger,  that  it  would  finally  involve  the  earth 
and  the  system  of  nature,  in  which  the  invisible 
enemies  of  God  and  His  people  are  intrenched. 

This  chapter  contains  the  first  mention  in  the 


THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  AND  OF  THE  LAMB.  195 


Bible  of  the  fire  of  hell :  “  For  a  fire  is  kindled 
in  mine  anger,  and  shall  burn  unto  the  lowest 
hell,  and  shall  consume  the  earth  with  her  increase, 
and  set  on  fire  the  foundations  of  the  mountains.” 
(vs.  22.)  Here  there  seems  to  be  a  foregleam  of 
that  judgment  by  fire  often  alluded  to  in  the  New 
Testament,  which,  however,  becomes  to  the  earth 
a  renovating  baptism,  cleansing  both  the  heavens 
and  earth  from  “all  things  that  offend,”  and  issu¬ 
ing:  in  the  new  heavens  and  earth  wherein  dwell- 
eth  righteousness. 

7.  These  judgments  upon  the  enemies,  who  had 
corrupted  His  people,  would  issue  in  their  deliver¬ 
ance  :  “  For  the  Lord  shall  judge  His  people,  and 
repent  Himself  for  His  servants,  when  He  seeth 
that  their  power  is  gone  and  there  is  none  shut  up 
or  left.” 

8.  The  God,  who  is  to  work  out  these  results, 
here  proclaims  Himself  as  the  Lord  over  death 
as  well  as  life,  able  to  wound  and  to  heal,  to  kill 
and  to  make  alive.  Not  even  the  triumph  of 
death  over  His  people  would  defeat  His  purpose 
to  restore  and  heal  them.  Here  the  resurrection 
of  Christ,  which  is  the  grand  centre  of  all  God’s 
redemptive  processes,  is  foreshadowed. 

9.  In  the  future  salvation  with  which  He 
should  mercifully  bless  His  land  and  people,  all 
the  nations,  who  had  themselves  suffered  under 
the  heavy  hand  of  His  judgments,  were  invited  to 


196  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


rejoice.  “The  beginning  of  revenges  upon  the 
enemy”  should  not  come  to  an  ending  until  the 
whole  field  had  been  cleared  of  these  hostile 
powers,  whether  intrenched  on  earth  or  in  the 
heavens,  who  had  crushed  down  the  human  race, 
Jew  and  Gentile,  into  this  bondage  to  sin  and 
death.  And  so  the.  song  closes  :  “  Rejoice,  O  ye 
nations,  with  His  people:  for  He  will  avenge  the 
blood  of  His  servants,  and  will  render  vengeance 
to  His  adversaries,  and  will  be  merciful  unto  His 
land,  and  to  His  people.” 

The  great  feature,  then,  of  this  song  of  Moses 
is,  its  exhibition  of  the  inflexible  righteousness 
of  God  and  of  the  dee]),  far-reaching  judgments 
required  for  its  vindication.  And  yet,  breaking 
through  the  clouds  and  darkness  which  are  round 
about  His  throne,  there  is  the  light  of  His  super¬ 
nal  love.  Great  thoughts  of  mercy  break  out  at 
the  close.  The  light  that  shines  here  from  the 
sun  of  righteousness  is  seen  to  contain  not  only 
the  red  rays  of  lurid  wrath,  but  the  violet  of  peace 
and  love.  So  all  God’s  Word  is  a  prism  which 
unravels  and  so  reveals  to  us  that  glory  whose 
unblended  rays  we  could  not  gaze  upon  and  live. 
These  two  great  features  of  the  divine  character, 
righteousness  and  love,  with  two  corresponding 
lines  of  administration,  are  traced  all  through  the 
Bible.  Even  the  law  which  came  by  Moses  was 
paralleled  by  a  sacrificial  system  which  set  forth 


THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  AND  OF  THE  LAMB.  197 


grace  toward  the  law-breaker.  And  so  the  song 
of  Moses,  which  sings  of  judgment,  sings  of  mercy 
at  the  close.  The  judgment  song  breaks  out  into 
the  redemption  song.  And  these  two  diverse 
strains  run  through  all  subsequent  psalm  and 
prophecy,  and  leave  their  traces  all  along  the  track 
of  history,  both  sacred  and  profane.  The  history 
of  every  Gentile  nation,  as  well  as  that  of  Israel, 
illustrates  this. 

But  our  text  shows  that  the  notes  of  this  song  of 
Moses  shall  hereafter  run  into  unison  with  those 
of  the  song  of  the  Lamb.  This  means  that  these 
parellel  lines  of  divine  dealing  run  together.  This 
book  of  the  Apocalypse  warns  us  that  there  is  a 
wrath  of  the  Lamb  as  well  as  a  wrath  of  God. 
The  tire,  of  which  Moses  forewarns  us,  goes  on 
burning,  even  under  the  administration  of  the 
Lamb,  until  all  God’s  enemies  have  perished,  and 
Satan  is  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire  prepared  for  him 
and  his  angels.  But  the  joy  of  the  text  is  that 
hereafter  the  songs  of  judgment  and  redemption 
are  blended.  No  more  two,  but  one  song  shall 
fill  the  vaulted  skies.  The  apparently  discordant 
features  of  the  divine  government  are  to  be  har¬ 
monized.  Neither  is  to  be  sacrificed.  The  law 
will  not  be  set  aside.  But  love  shall  not  be  foiled 
of  its  ends.  And  men  shall  glory  as  much  in  God’s 
righteousness,  when  His  judgments  are  made  man¬ 
ifest,  as  they  rejoice  in  His  love.  One  anthem 


198  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN . 


shall  ascend  from  earth’s  ransomed  myriads.  And 
that  shall  not  be  the  song  of  Moses,  nor  of  the 
Lamb  only,  but  the  song  of  Moses  and  of  the 
Lamb.  The  harmony  will  be  far  richer,  deeper, 
for  the  blending.  The  minor  chords  of  judgment 
will  melt  into  the  symphonies  of  love,  and  flow 
on  with  them  in  one  eternal  tide  of  melody. 

The  prime  lesson  we  derive,  then,  from  this  sub¬ 
ject  is  one  of  calm  confidence  in  God,  the  Judge 
of  all  the  earth.  “Just  and  true  are  all  His 
ways.”  There  are  dark  mysteries  in  the  book  of 
divine  providence.  We  are  every  day  staggered 
by  them.  There  are  even  darker  mysteries  in 
His  Word.  We  read  there  about  an  everlasting 
fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels.  We 
hear  the  lips  of  Jesus  pronouncing  the  doom, 
“Depart,  ye  cursed.”  We  read  of  a  great  day  of 
judgment  and  perdition  of  ungodly  men.  And 
yet  we  read  that  God  is  love.  Jesus  came  to  tell 
us  of  His  infinite  tender  compassion.  He  spake 
the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son  ;  He  declared  that 
God  so  loved  the  world,  not  a  part  of  it,  but  the 
world ,  as  to  give  for  its  redemption  His  only- 
begotten  Son.  We  read  that  His  love  in  Jesus 
Christ  is  an  ocean  without  bottom  and  without 
shore.  How,  then,  can  these  things  be  reconciled  ? 
These  aspects  of  the  divine  character  seem  to  con¬ 
tradict  and  to  neutralize  each  other.  Men  say, 
“  No  earthly  father  would  punish  so  his  child.  Is 


THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  AND  OF  THE  LAMB.  199 


the  heavenly  Father  less  kind?”  We  may  not  be 
able  to  reconcile  these  statements.  Thank  God, 
it  is  not  our  business  to  reconcile  them.  We  are 
not  required  to  harden  these  “  hard  sayings”  into 
dogmas,  nor  compress  them  into  formulas  which 
shall  satisfy  us,  much  less  silence  the  cavi lings  of 
the  unbelieving  mind.  No  human  creed  is  broad 
enough  nor  deep  enough  to  take  in  all  that  may 
be  known  of  God.  And  there  are  some  secret 
things  which,  as  this  song  tells  us,  remain  sealed 
up  among  His  treasures.  But  while  we  cannot 
explain  all  God’s  ways  to  men,  nor  harmonize 
them,  we  rejoice  to  know  that  they  are  to  be  ex¬ 
plained  and  reconciled.  The  Bible  assures  us  that 
the  divine  administrations  are  not  limited  to  one 
age  or  world,  or  even  to  ages.  There  are  ages 
upon  ages  to  come.  The  inspired  seer  transports 
us  here  into  an  age  to  come,  and  bids  us  listen  to 
a  song  which  sings  of  both  mercy  and  judgment. 
We  hear  the  tones  of  the  song  of  Moses  and  of 
the  Lamb  roll  down  from  heaven  to  earth  and 
ascend  again  in  antiphony  from  earth  to  heaven. 

I  may  not  understand,  then,  these  deep  things 
of  God.  I  may  not  satisfy  the  cavil  of  every 
objector,  nor  even  the  honest  doubt  of  the  sincere 
seeker  after  truth.  I  may  fail  to  remove  the  sad 
misgivings  of  tender  loving  souls.  But,  though  I 
cannot  see  behind  the  veil,  I  can  look  forward 
with  joy  to  that  time  when  the  covering  which 


200  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


now  hides  from  us  our  Father,  God,  shall  be  taken 
away,  and  we  shall  see  His  face.  It  is  enough 
for  me  to  know  that  the  lurid  rays  of  His  wrath 
and  the  violet  rays  of  His  peace  and  love  blend 
together  in  that  pure  white  light  which  is  the 
splendor  and  the  joy  of  heaven,  and  that  even  the 
earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  this 
glory  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.  It  is  enough 
to  know  that  this  song  shall  fill  the  high  arches 
of  heaven,  and  be  sent  back  with  glad  acclaim 
from  the  redeemed  on  earth.  “  Great  and  mar¬ 
vellous  are  Thy  works,  Lord  God  Almighty;  just 
and  true  are  Thy  ways,  Thou  King  of  saints.  Who 
shall  not  fear  Thee  and  glorify  Thy  name?  for 
Thou  only  art  holy  :  for  all  nations  shall  come  and 
worship  before  Thee;  for  Thy  judgments  are 
made  manifest.” 

A  lesson  still  more  practical  is,  that  all  God’s 
discipline  of  us  in  this  world  is  designed  to  pre¬ 
pare  us  to  sing  this  song.  We  have  seen  that  in 
His  discipline  of  His  ancient  people,  and  of  the 
Gentiles  also,  these  counter-principles  of  a  right¬ 
eousness  that  cannot  abate  its  claims,  and  of  a  love 
that  cannot  be  balked  of  its  object,  stand  side  by 
side.  One  does  not  vield  to  the  other.  So  it  is 
with  our  individual  redemption.  Which  of  us 
cannot  recognize  these  two  parallel  lines  of  divine 
dealing  through  all  our  lives  past?  We  all,  like 
the  Psalmist,  can  say,  u  I  will  sing  of  mercy  and 


THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  AND  OF  THE  LAMB.  201 


of  judgment.”  God’s  righteousness  has  encom¬ 
passed  us  on  every  side.  Our  sins  have  found  us 
out.  The  sins  of  our  fathers  have  been  visited 
upon  us.  The  rod  of  His  chastisement  lias  not 
been  spared.  We  can  trace  these  fatherly  cor¬ 
rections  through  our  business,  our  households,  our 
whole  environment,  and  in  our  persons.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  our  forgiveness  through 
Christ  annuls  or  sets  aside  the  law  by  which  God 
has  forever  attached  suffering  to  sin.  The  words 
of  Nathan  to  David  show  the  true  doctrine  con¬ 
cerning  this.  (2  Sam.  xii.)  By  the  Lord’s  com¬ 
mand  he  told  the  monarch,  “  The  Lord  hath  put 
away  thy  sin.  Thou  shalt  not  die.”  His  life 
was  redeemed.  But  it  must  also  now  be  purified 
by  suffering.  And  hence  the  prophet  goes  on  to 
tell  him  how  he  must  suffer  in  his  person,  in  his 
family,  in  his  kingdom.  And  the  subsequent  his¬ 
tory  of  David  fully  illustrates  how  the  fire  of 
God’s  anger  burnt  against  him  to  consume  the 
evil  out  of  his  life  and  to  purify  and  uplift  his 
throne.  And  here  we  see  how  mercy  came  in. 
These  afflictions  were  made  the  salutary  means  of 
great  good.  David  often  confesses  this.  God  was 
redeeming  him  in  this  way  of  judgment.  And  so 
with  us.  Our  redemption  through  Christ  secures 
for  our  old  nature  of  sin  no  exemption.  It  is  to 
Christians  that  Paul  writes,  “  Be  not  deceived ; 
God  is  not  mocked  :  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 


202  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


that  shall  he  also  reap.  For  he  that  soweth  to 
his  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption. ”  (Gal. 
vi.  7,  8.)  There  is  no  escape  from  this  law.  The 
redemption  of  Christ  proceeds  upon  the  fact  that 
sentence  of  death  has  been  passed  upon  the  old 
man  in  us  and  that  we  have  accepted  it.  When 
we  come  to  the  cross,  we  confess  judgment  against 
ourselves  in  that  character.  We  consent  to  die 
out  of  the  old  life  of  sio  that  we  may  live  anew 
in  Christ  Jesus.  And  God’s  discipline  of  us 
accords  with  this  judgment.  It  executes  this 
sentence.  The  old  self  is  handed  over  to  death. 
And  wisely,  tenderly,  as  we  are  able  to  bear  it, 
the  slow  fire  of  His  anger  burns  against  all  that 
is  evil  in  our  lives.  But  the  anger  is  only  a  sur¬ 
face  flame  on  a  deeper  fire  of  love.  The  chasten¬ 
ing  is  for  our  profit.  The  light  affliction  works 
for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory.  Hence,  with  David,  we  sing,  “  Goodness 
and  mercy  shall  follow  me  all  the  days  of  my 
life.”  We  learn  to  bless  the  hand  that  smites, 
because  we  know  it  is  our  Father’s  hand  of  love. 

So  all  through  our  lives  these  two  lines  of  His 
dealing  run  side  by  side,  until,  as  to  the  body  at 
least,  sin  exacts  its  full  wages,  which  are  death. 
But  here  the  loving  hand  of  Him  who  wounds 
and  heals,  who  kills  and  makes  alive  (vs.  39), 
comes  in  to  convert  this  victory  over  us  of  the 
last  enemy  into  eternal  triumph.  Dying  with 


THE  SONG  OF  MOSES  AND  OF  THE  LAMB.  203 


Christ,  we  rise  and  reign  with  Him  in  endless 
life. 

And  so,  after  all  the  results  of  His  dealing  with 
us  are  summed  up,  and  we  come  to  review  the 
way  by  which  He  has  led  us,  we  shall  see  how, 
in  the  whole  conduct  of  our  earthly  discipline, 
Mercy  and  Truth  meet  together,  Righteousness 
and  Peace  kiss  each  other ;  how  the  grace  of  God 
in  our  salvation  has  only  magnified  the  law  and 
made  it  honorable.  And  so,  with  all  God’s  re¬ 
deemed  of  every  land  and  every  name,  we  shall 
be  prepared  to  sing  the  song  of  Moses  as  well  as 
of  the  Lamb.  So  shall  the  song  of  our  redemp¬ 
tion  be  to  us  forever  richer  and  purer  because  its 
strains  are  mingled  with  the  song  of  judgment. 
And  our  lives,  henceforth  harmonized  with  the 
life  of  God,  in  whom  all  things  live,  shall  be  all 
the  broader  and  stronger,  and  so  fitted  for  those 
ranges  of  activity  and  enjoyment  which  He  is 
preparing  for  His  sons  in  the  coming  ages. 

And  let  us  never  forget  that  all  this  wealth 
of  blessing,  this  joy  out  of  sorrow,  this  gold  out 
of  dross,  this  white  robe  out  of  tribulation,  this 
crown  surmounting  the  cross,  is  due  to  the  grace 
that  gave  us  Christ,  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketli 
away  our  sins.  These  songs  of  redemption  are 
the  songs  of  His  enthronement  as  Lord  over  all. 
This  splendor  of  heaven  and  this  light  that  shall 
yet  bathe  the  earth  is  not  the  glory  of  God  alone, 


204  MYSTERY  OF  CREATION  AND  OF  MAN. 


but  of  God  and  the  Lamb.  Even  He,  as  man, 
was  judged  for  us  in  the  flesh  and  endured  the 
curse  of  the  law.  And  we,  redeemed  by  His 
blood,  and  reaching  the  same  heights  through 
the  same  lowly  way  of  the  cross,  shall  sing  with 
Him  both  of  judgment  and  of  victory,  and  ever¬ 
more  praise  Him  as  the  Conquering  Captain  of 
our  salvation. 

And  now  unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed 
us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood,  and  hath 
made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  His 
Father;  to  Him  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever 
and  ever.  Amen. 


THE  END. 


/ 


